Tiger, Monkey, Snake and Goldsmith

Long time ago, in a small village lived a poor brahmin One day as the brahmin was traveling on foot to a nearby village, he came upon a forest well in the middle of the forest. To quench his thirst, he peered down in search of water in the well. The deep well was dry but he saw a tiger, a monkey, a snake and a goldsmith looking up at him from the dried well. They all begged him to save them by pulling them out of the well and everyone promised to reward him back in someways. All the animals warned him not to help the goldsmith at all, out of the well as he was not worth trusting. But the brahmin did’nt heed their warning, and out of the kindness of his heart, pulled all of them out of the well one by one. The tiger, when he came out promised him gifts anytime he visited him near his cave. The monkey also promised him sweet treats of fruits when he came to his tree nearby. The snake asked the brahmin to remember him if he ever needed any help and the goldsmith promised to help him if he ever needed help with any jewelry. After being rescued by the kind brahmin they all went their separate ways. The brahmin continued on his journey and soon came upon the monkey’s mango tree. The monkey as promised, gifted him delicious sweet fruits of the forest and showed him the way to the tiger’s cave. The tiger gifted him with lots of gold jewelry which he had saved after killing and eating a lost prince long time ago. The brahmin was thrilled to receive such beautiful royal ornaments! He thanked the tiger and then the happy brahmin made his way to the city of the goldsmith. On reaching the goldsmith, the brahmin showed him all the jewelry which he wanted to sell to the goldsmith. The goldsmith immediately recognized the royal jewelry and in greed for a reward, he reported him to the king for looting the missing prince! The king decided throw him in jail, and execute him in few days. When he heard the goldsmith’s accusations of killing king’s son, the brahmin insisted that he was innocent and didn't have anything to do with the missing prince! But the solders captured him and threw him in jail. The goldsmith was handsomely rewarded by the king. Now sitting in jail, the helpless poor brahmin remembered the snake to help him out. Magically, the snake appeared instantly. The snake wanted to help the brahmin out of his predicament and he instructed the brahmin that “I, the snake will bite the royal queen and by your touch the queen will awaken and be revived and then you will be free as the king will be very happy with you for saving the queen’s life.”. After the snake bit the queen and no doctor could revive the queen, the brahmin told the prison guards that he had the cure for the snakebite. Immediately, he was ushered to royal quarters of the queen and just by his mere touch, the queen was well again as the snake had promised. Seeing the queen regaining her health back, the king was greatly overjoyed with the brahmin and rewarded him well. The brahmin related his side of the story of how he had come into the possession of his missing son’s jewelry. The king punished the greedy goldsmith and made the brahmin very wealthy. The kind brahmin lived happily ever after with his family in prosperity.

Wisdom, life lessons, and rules-It is wise, not to trust anyone because Man is a very complex animal due to vices of greed, anger, lust, ego, jealousy, and attachment.

The Monk and the Robber

Once upon a time, there was an sadhu living in a small village. Due to gifts he received from his followers, he had collected a few gold coins. He tied the gold coins to his orange robes. A robber was observing the monk from a while and he had noticed the little pouch of gold coins tied to Monk’s robes He decided to follow the monk unnoticed. He saw that everyday the monk would go for a bath and and leave his robes on the bank of that river and chant mantras with his eyes closed to the Sun God before starting to bath in the river. One day, the thief decided to be friendly with the monk and after many meetings they became good friends over time. They would meet occasionally and the thief would pretend to be interested in learning more about God and the monks philosophy. One day, the thief asked the monk if he could also learn to chant mantras in the river to the Surya god before taking a bath. The monk agreed to teach him the mantras next morning and they both decided to meet near the river early in the morning. Next day when the monk went to the nearby river to take a bath, the thief also pretended to go with him. The thief took his time removing his clothes and as soon as the monk removed his orange robes and went in the river to Strat chanting mantras, the thief picked up the orange robe with gold coins stuck to it and ran far away to another new village. The monk was already chanting mantras to sun god with his eyes closed and then he turned to teach his friend and opened his eyes. He saw his friend running away at a distance and soon realized that his friend had also taken his robes suddenly ran away with his orange robes It dawned on him that he had been fooled by his so called friend. He was astonished that his friend had known about the gold coins hidden in his clothing and realized that this friend may have been observing him for a while so he could steal his gold coins. That day, the monk decided to not trust anyone he had learned a good lesson.

Wisdom, life lessons, and rules-It is wise, not to trust anyone because Man is a very complex animal due to vices of greed, anger, lust, ego, jealousy, and attachment.