In the town named Pataliputra, there lived a rich trader. He was a very religious-minded and good-natured person. Very kind to the poor as he was, people liked him very much. His ancestors had been well-off but luck didn’t favour him. He became so poor that even his kinsmen showered disgrace on him whenever they got a chance.
One day the trader, lying in his bed at night, said to himself, “What a strange fact it is! When a person has money, everyone gives him regard. But as soon as one becomes poor, one’s virtues and honour become meaningless. A poor person becomes a non-entity for his own men and they ignore him at every step. I am sailing in the same boat. I must not live such a disgraceful life. I should ceased to exist on this planet.”
Lost in these thoughts, the trader fell fast asleep and came to have a dream. There appeared a saint in his dream and he said to the trader, “Don’t lose heart like that. I am the treasure that your fore-fathers earned through very honest dealings. I shall come to your house in this very form tomorrow morning. Strike a club on my head. I shall fall down as a statue made of pure gold. Use me in business and you will earn a lot. But keep in mind that you must carry out your dealings very honestly.
Next morning, the trader woke up. He had a word about his weird dream with his wife. He thought it a baseless dream because of his worries and grief. Again and again, the words of the saint came to his mind and he rejected them as the imagination of his uneasy mind.
Just then arrived a barber who had been sent for by the trader’s wife for the hair-cut of their young son. The barber was just going to start his work, when a saint also appeared. It was the same saint as had been seen by the trader in his dream. The trader was really surprised to see him.
The trader lost no time to pick up a club and hit the saint hard on his head. Ho! the saint fell down on the floor in the form of a statue made of pure gold. The trader dragged the statue into his strong-room and sent the barber away after giving him a bag of money. He asked him to keep the entire happening a safe secret. The barber went away very happy and satisfied.
But he was always thinking over the incident that he had seen in the trader’s house. Actually, he came to believe that any saint, if hit on the head, would turn into a statue of gold.
So, the barber decided to invite a number of saints to his house and hit each of them on the head with a strong club. He was sure that by doing so, he would be far richer than the trader.
Next day the barber rose early in the morning and procured a strong club to be used for hitting the saints. Then he had his bath and put on clean clothes. Thus getting ready, the barber went to a nearby monastery (math) of the Jain saints.
Going round the idol of Lord Mahavira 3 times, he went to the head of the saints living in the monastery and requested him to dine in his house along with all the other saints. But the head of the saints said, “My son! we are saints and never go to dine in anybody’s house. We simply move out of the monastery when it is time for lunch. People offer us to dine individually. We pacify our hunger and come back to the monastery. We eat food only once in 24 hours to keep alive and to meditate.”
The barber felt sorry for his blunder and left the monastery after touching the feet of all the saints. He thought hard over the matter and at last chalked out a plan.
When it was time for lunch, the barber approached the monastery and stood outside its main gate. As the saints came out with their begging bowls, he brought them home respectfully. When all the saints had got inside his house, he bolted the main door from inside and put a strong lock there on too. Losing no time, he began to hit the saints on their heads with his club one by one.
Some of the saints died on the spot while others were very badly injured. They raised an alarm and people gathered outside the barber’s house. Someone informed the police and the police officer of the city reached the site. He made the barber open the main door and saw what had happened.
The barber was hand-cuffed and put behind the bars. A case started against him in the court. The judges asked the barber why he had killed the saints. But he could give no satisfactory reply. So, he was sentenced to death.
Thus the foolish barber came to be punished for doing something without thinking over its consequences.
Moral of the Story:- Never act foolishly and Greed is the Mother of all the problems.
