Indian Stories by Sri Chinmoy
Once an English officer came to an Indian village. This particular village was fortunate to have a few well-educated people, some of whom knew English quite well. One day, when the English officer had come to visit the village chief, two men came to the chief to make complaints against each other.
The first man said, “Sir, I bought a plot of land from this man, and I was cultivating it to grow paddies. While digging, I came across some gold coins buried in the ground.”
The chief asked, “So what is the problem, then?”
The man continued, “I am telling him to take the gold coins, because they don’t belong to me. I bought the land only, but I didn’t buy the gold coins.”
The second man spoke up. “Sir, how can I take the gold coins. When I sold him the land, whatever was inside it became his. The gold coins belong to him, so I can’t take them. If I take them, it will be all deception.”
The first one said the same. “If I take the coins, sir, it will be all deception on my part, since I didn’t pay for the gold coins.”
In this way both of them were arguing in front of the chief. The chief finally said, “Your argument will never come to an end.”
Both of the parties asked, “Chief, then do you have a solution?”
“Yes,” replied the chief. To the first man the chief said, “Do you have a son?”
“Yes,” replied the man.
“And do you have a daughter?” the chief asked the second man.
“Yes, I do,” answered the second one.
“Then,” declared the chief, “it is very easy. I am giving the gold coins to you for your daughter. Your daughter and his son will get married. Then, as a dowry your daughter will bring the money to her husband’s home. There very happily they will live.”
Both men thanked the chief deeply, “O Chief, your wisdom has saved us. We shall definitely listen to your advice.”
The Englishman was observing the whole scene. When the two men left, he said to the chief, “I am so surprised to find these kinds of people on earth, especially in India. How can such saintly people live in India?”
The chief said, “It is quite possible. Here people are sincere. They don’t know any other way to act; for them, this kind of nobility and sincerity is the only way. What would you have done if this had happened in England?”
The Englishman replied, “I would have given them each a smart slap and taken away the gold coins, saying that they belonged to the government.”
The chief was silent for a moment. Then he asked the Englishman: “Does the sun shine in England?”
“Certainly,” answered the Englishman.
“Do you have the moon?” the chief asked.
“Certainly,” the Englishman replied again.
“Do you have stars?”
“Certainly.”
“Do you have rain and water?”
“Certainly.”
“Do you have animals and birds?”
“Yes, of course.”
The chief jumped to his feet. “Ah, now I understand! God has given England the sun, moon, stars and water, not for Englishmen, but for the innocent birds and animals that live there. God certainly would not have given the sun, moon, stars and water to you people.”
The Englishman got the point.
There was once a king who had a very, very wise minister.
Everybody used to admire the minister’s wisdom. This king was good friends with a particular emperor. One day the emperor gave three dolls to the king and said to him, “I will be very happy if either your minister or anybody else can tell me which is the first class doll, which is second class and which is third class.”
The king thanked the emperor profusely, “O Emperor, I am all gratitude for your gifts. I shall always cherish our friendship, and I shall gladly ask the members of my court and my kingdom to look at these dolls.”
The following day the king invited all his very intelligent friends and members of the court to see the dolls. All of them looked at the three dolls, and some of them held them and examined them in every possible way. But most of them said, “O King, we are sorry. All three dolls look exactly the same to us. Either they are all first class, or all second class or all third class; it is hard to tell. But we can only say that whatever class they belong to, they all belong to the same one.”
“This answer is not satisfactory,” said the king. Then he turned to his wise minister and asked, “Why are you remaining silent? You are the wisest of all. Why are you not saying anything about these dolls?”
“What do I know about dolls?” replied the minister.
“Please,” pleaded the king, “you must help me. If you do not come up with a satisfactory answer, what will the Emperor say about my kingdom? He will think that we have no intelligent people here.”
The minister finally agreed to look at the dolls. “Let me take them home and examine them.”
The king said, “Take them and keep them for several days so that you can find the answer. Otherwise, I will be really embarrassed.”
The minister took home the dolls. He noticed that although the dolls looked exactly alike, there were some small differences. One doll had one hole in one of its ears. Another had two holes, one in each ear. And the third doll had one hole in one of its ears and another hole in its mouth.
“Now I know the answer,” cried the minister. “The first class doll is the one that has only one hole in its ear. This doll hears with a sympathetic ear, and then keeps whatever it hears to itself. There is no way for what it hears to come out. This doll represents very good people. When these kinds of people hear something, they keep it to themselves. This world is full of corruption and they don’t want to spread gossip.
“The second doll is also silent, but whatever it hears goes in one ear and out the other. It does not keep any information to itself. Regardless of whether it hears good and soulful things or undivine things, the information just passes through one ear and out the other. These people are indifferent to the world situation.
“The third one has the hole in one ear and another hole in the mouth. As soon as it hears anything, immediately through its foul mouth it tells the whole world.
“So, the first doll remains silent, because it knows that the world is full of corruption and it does not want to add to the world’s ignorance. The second doll is indifferent. Whatever it hears immediately goes out the other ear. And the third doll immediately tells the whole world everything with its foul tongue. This is the answer that my King needs for his Emperor friend.”
The following day the minister told the king his answer, and this answer was sent to the emperor. The emperor said, “The minister is absolutely right. Now I see that the King indeed has some intelligent people in his kingdom.” And the king gave the minister a very good reward for his divine wisdom.
Once there was a woodcutter and a barber. One day, the barber went to the woodcutter and said, “I want to buy some fuel.”
The woodcutter had the wood on the back of his donkey. “That is wonderful,” he said. “How much do you want?”
“Everything that you have,” the barber replied.
So the woodcutter gave him all the wood and said, “Now, please give me the money.”
“No,” said the barber. “First you have to give me everything; otherwise, I won’t give you any money.”
The woodcutter explained, “I can’t give you that last piece of wood. It is tied to the donkey’s back and it always remains there as the foundation for the wood pile.”
The barber insisted, “You have to give me everything.”
“I can’t,” the woodcutter said again. “That one always remains on the donkey.”
“Then I won’t give you money,” said the barber. “I told you that you have to give everything. Since you are not giving everything and because you have wasted my time, I am taking away some of this wood without paying.”
The woodcutter tried to stop him, but the barber was so strong that the woodcutter had no choice but to allow the barber to take the wood.
“That barber is such a rogue!” cried the woodcutter, and he went immediately to the village chief and made a complaint against him.
The village chief said to him, “You also do the same kind of thing to him. Then everything will be all right.”
In a few weeks the woodcutter went to the barber’s shop and said, “O barber, I am so glad to see you after such a long time. I also have my friend with me. First you cut my hair and give me a shave, and then I will go bring my friend.”
The barber was delighted to have two customers. “Wonderful,” he said, and he shaved the woodcutter and cut his hair.
“Excellent,” said the woodcutter. “Now I am going to bring my friend. Once you have shaved him, I will give you money for both of us.”
The woodcutter went out and brought his donkey into the barber shop. “After you shave my friend, then only I will pay you.”
“You rascal!” shouted the barber. “How can I shave a donkey?”
“Please,” said the woodcutter, “you can see that he has got a beard, and his moustache looks so awful. If you don’t shave him, I am not going to pay for my shave and haircut. This is my only friend, my best friend. You saw my friend a few weeks ago. I have no more intimate friend on earth than this donkey. He is my only friend.”
The barber got furious. “You have to pay.”
The woodcutter said calmly, “The last time you took wood from me, you wanted me to give you everything. I could not, so you got mad and took away my precious wood without paying me. Now, before I came to you, I told you that I had a friend who also needs a shave. Since you have not shaved my friend, why should I give you any money, dear barber?”
The woodcutter took his donkey and left. The barber was so angry that he went immediately to see the village chief. The chief remembered the complaint that he had received from the woodcutter against the barber. So the chief simply said, “Tit for tat.”
Published in Great Indian Meals: Divinely Delicious and Supremely Nourishing, part 6
