The thief of the cotton rolls

  

Once there lived a cotton trader. He had to deliver cotton rolls to the country of China. He had to travel a great distance to reach his destination. He got tired on the way and slept under the shade of a statue of Buddha.

He kept his bundle of rolls beside him while sleeping. When he woke up his cotton rolls were missing. He went to the judge of the city and told him his problem.

The judge told everyone “As this man was sleeping under the statue of the Buddha the statue is the culprit. We must go and arrest that statue”.

All the people were left dumbstruck. The judge and a few men went to the statue, lifted it and brought it to the house of the judge. There were many more people than the day before.

Many people were laughing at the decision of the judge. The judge called all the people who were laughing at his decision. 

He told the people “I had made my decision and the king has made laws that whoever laughs at my decision must be punished. So, these people deserve punishment”.

“They must bring a bundle of cotton rolls from their houses or else they will be arrested”. So, the next day all of the people who were ‘punished’ brought a bag of cotton rolls each.

All the bags were checked secretly inside the judge’s house. One of the bags was the merchant’s. The man who had brought the merchant’s bag was arrested.

 The merchant got his bag back and was happy. Then the judge told all the people why he arrested the statue and gave those people punishment. All the people praised the judge’s wisdom and went back home.

The rope of Ash

Once there was a rich merchant who had only one son. His son was very lazy and foolish. The merchant was very worried about his son. He would become the heir to all his wealth. He wanted his son to use the money wisely. So, he decided that he would marry his son to a wise woman. 

He called his son and told him to take a herd of rams to the market and buy five bags of rice. His son asked him if he should sell the rams. The merchant told him to bring the rice and the rams back.

The son was confused. He went to the market and sat there waiting for someone to help him. No one came to his help. Everyone was busy and no one paid attention to him. It was noon and he hadn’t bought the rice. 

He decided to go to his house. As he was getting up to leave a girl came and asked him are those rams for sale. He told her that they were not for sale. Then she asked him why he was sitting there. He was amazed by her beauty. He told her about the task his father had given him. He asked her how he could buy rice without selling the rams.

She told him you should go home with the rams but you can sell their wool. They went and borrowed a pair of shears and cut the rams’ wool. He sold all the wool and had enough money to buy five bags of rice.

He took the rams and the rice home and showed his father. His father did not say anything. He told him to come to the dining room the next morning. The next morning he went to the dining room and found his father waiting for him there.   

His father told him to take the same rams to the market and buy six bags of barley. He told him to bring the barley and wool back. His son like the day before was stumped.

He went to the market and sat there waiting for someone to help him. He hoped that the girl would help him again. That noon the girl came again and asked him what was the task his father had given today.

He told her the task his father had given him. He asked her how he could buy barley without selling the rams or its wool. She again helped him. She told him that he could sell the horns of the rams. 

He thanked her and cut the horns of the rams and sold it and bought six bags of barley. He went home and showed the barley. His father knew that he had not done the work all by himself. 

He asked his son to tell the truth about who had helped him. He told his father about the girl. His father told him to tell the girl to make a rope of ash.

The son went and told the girl about the task for her. She went home and kept a rope on a tile and burnt it. The rope was burnt but the ash was left on the tile.

She took the tile and ash of the rope to the merchant and showed it to him. The merchant was very happy with her asked her to marry his son. They were married. After the death of the merchant his son continued his business with the help of his intelligent wife.

The wise prince

 A  long  time  ago  three  kings  were  travelling  to  a  distant  land.   As  it  was  a  long  way  from  their  kingdoms,  they  took  a  shortcut.  On   their  way  they  saw  an  uninhabited  land.  The  kings  thought  it  was  a  good  place  for  people  to  live,   so  they  thought  of  developing  it  into  a  city.  After  they  finished  their  work  they  brought  people  from  their  kingdom  to  that  land  and  built  great  mansions,  buildings,  schools,  universities, etc. They   built   the  city  beautifully  and  it  was adored  by  everyone.  But   the   only  thing  missing  was  proper  security  .  

A   cruel   king  heard  of  it  and  planned  to  attack  the  city.  As  the  security  was  not  proper  the  king  attacked  it  easily  and  looted  all  its  riches,  destroyed  all  the wonderful  things  in  it  and  it  became uninhabitable again. The  kings  could not rescue their new  city  and  they  could  not  help  much  as  they  had  spent  more  than  three – fourths  of  their  treasure in building the city.  They  donated some of the left over treasure  to  the  citizens  and  helped them build  small  huts as they could not afford great  mansions like  before.  There  were  no  great  buildings,  towers  or  anything  except  small  dirty  huts  and  hungry  people.  

After  twenty  years  the  three  princes  of  the  kings  came  to  the  city  which  actually  was  like  a  poor  village.  The  first  prince  couldn’t  stand  to  see  such  poverty.  He  gave  away  all  his  valuable  jewels  and  gold.  The  second  prince  also  couldn’t  stand  to  see  such  poverty  and  gave  away  all  his  food  and  drink.  The  third  prince  thought  for  a  while  and  just  rode  away  on  his  horse.  The  other  two  princes  said  ‘ Hey  look  at  him. He  lacks  decency  and  generosity. What  a  shame  for  a  prince!’  they  said.  After  four  hours  they  saw  the  prince  riding  back  towards  the  village  with  a  large  wagon. The  wagon  contained  farming  implements,  tools  and  sacks  of  seeds.  He  gave  it  to  all  the  citizens.  

After  two  years,  the  princes  saw  that  the  village  was  developing  into  a  town.  All  the  small  huts  became  normal  sized  houses  and  some  buildings  were  built.  The  two  princes  who  commented  about  the  other  prince  realized  that  they  had  just  helped  the  citizen  so  that  they  can  feel  better  about  themselves  whereas  the  other  prince  really  worried  about  the  people   and  had  given  them  a  permanent  solution  out  of  poverty.  The  jewels,  gold,  food  and  drink  could  help  the  people  temporarily  whereas  the  farming  tools  could  help  them  to  get  out  of  poverty  permanently.