A Narrow escape

Once upon a time a farmer who was a very rich was not able to employ anyone to work for him in his fields as he was a miser. He did not pay his farm helpers on time and cut their wages with one excuse or another. The result was no one wanted to work for him. One day, the farmer visited a very wise monk and told him about his problem of not finding any workers for his field.. The monk told him that he can give the miser a mantra with which a genie will appear and do all his work. He will be his servant and do all his chores free of charge. The farmer fell at his feet and asked for the mantra. The monk instructed him on how to recite the mantra. The farmer immediately followed the instructions and repeated the mantra night and day for months .

One fine morning, a genie appeared before him! The farmer was very shocked and terrified at the sight of this genie as he was huge and ugly. The genie said “What do u want me to do, master?” The farmer was shaking with fear and in a shaken voice replied “I want you to do all my work and help me.” “Yes, my master, please tell me what you want me to do?” said the genie. “But before you instruct me to do any work, let me tell that after I finish that work I will eat you up if you fail to provide me with the next workload. so you must always keep providing me with lots of work after work. So you must give me another work immediately and if you fail to do that, I will have to kill you and eat you.” said the genie warning the farmer.

The farmer was very happy but scared as he had enough work for the genie. He took him to his fields and ask the genie to till the soil, and plant the seeds, and water the fields and make a water wheel on the well for the bullocks to water the field. The farmer thought this work will take him months to do but the genie was quick and came back in half a day. The farmer was terrified now as the genie was very quick at his tasks. so he gave him more work which was to build a big school in his village. By evening the demon had finished the work. Now the farmer was worried, as he thought that, building such a big building would have kept him busy for at least few days. But the genie was back at night and the landlord kept giving him work. The farmer was worried for his safety, since the genie was able to finish everything given to him in short time. He was about to give up as he could not think of any more work. He told his wife about his decision to give up. His wife was very, very sharp and brave. She said “Do not worry, my dear, anymore. The next time he comes to ask for more work, send him to me, I will give him work.” As soon as the demon came to her, she gave him her dog and said “I want you to straighten his curly tail for me.” The demon took the dog and tried very hard to keep the dog’s tail from curling up but he couldn’t do it. Feeling ashamed that he could not keep the curly tail straight, genie decided to disappear as he could not do the job and never came back ever again to ask for more work! The farmer was relieved and now he made sure to pay his farm help generously.

Wisdom,life lessons and rules-There is always a solution to every problem! Do not give up no matter how difficult your problem is. As it is said by the wise that every problem has a solution.

Wit and intelligence if used wisely we can be victorious in the most adverse of situations and overcome any situation easily!

If we know someone’s weakness we can easily overcome any situation no matter how powerful the enemy is …like the farmers wife who knew the genie’s weakness so she played it well and was victorious.

“Mommy, I cannot do this problem which our teacher has given. I am giving up as it is too difficult to solve!” said Neelu tree. “There is always a way to find a solution to any problem. Do not give up yet, I know you will figure out a solution, if you keep thinking about it. Maybe this story will help you think out of the box …” said Nishu tree.