The haunted house

There was once an old man whose daughter had grown up and he wanted to find her a husband. Since he didn’t have enough money for a proper dowry, he went to the village moneylender. The moneylender was a real rogue. Whenever somebody was in serious difficulty, he would always raise the interest. In this case he asked the old man to pay a very high interest rate.

The old man said, “Already I am in serious trouble, since my daughter is unmarried. What will society say if I keep a mature girl home without letting her marry? That is why I need the money. Can you not at least ask for the regular interest?”

The moneylender said, “No, no, no! For each person I have a different rate of interest.”

So the old man said, “All right, then I can do only one thing. I have an old house that my grandfather left for me. Now I am living in a smaller house. I was planning to keep my grandfather’s house so that when my daughter got married, she and her husband could go and live there. But now, since I am unable to get money, I will sell the house.”

Again the moneylender proved himself to be a rogue. When the old man put an advertisement in the newspaper telling people that he was going to sell his house, the moneylender spread the gossip everywhere that it was a haunted house. He warned people, “Don’t buy it, don’t buy it!”

The villagers liked the house. It was big and in good condition. Unlike the moneylender, the old man was not asking for an exorbitant amount of money. He was asking for only fifty thousand rupees, which was almost nothing, since it was a very big house. But people wouldn’t go near the house because they all thought that it was haunted.

One day a rich man came to this particular village. The moneylender was hoping this rich man would ask him for money, because he knew he would be able to charge a very high rate of interest. The rich man did not need money from the moneylender, but still the moneylender was talking to him, saying how nice the village was and other things.

The rich man said to the moneylender, “I see in your village a very big house for sale. I am going to buy this house, even if the owner asks for one hundred thousand rupees. Then I will turn it into a factory and make lots of profit. I won’t buy it now, but next time I come I will bring my assistant and negotiate to buy it.”

The moneylender said, “Yes, yes, it is a nice house. You should try to buy it. Are you definitely willing to spend one hundred thousand rupees?”

“Yes,” said the rich man. “I am definitely willing to buy it for that price.”

The moneylender said, “It is a fine idea. Good luck.”

As soon as the rich man left the village, the moneylender went to the old man and said, “I understand that you want to sell your house. People are saying that it is a haunted house, but they are fools. How much are you asking for the house?”

The old man said, “I am asking fifty thousand rupees.”

The moneylender said, “Since people are saying all kinds of things about the house, can you not give it to me for twenty-five thousand rupees?”

The old man said, “No, fifty thousand rupees is the price. I won’t take one rupee more or one rupee less. I will sell it to whoever wants to buy it, but that is the price. I am a sincere man, and someday people will realise this. Now they are saying that it is a haunted house, but someday they will see that it is a very good house.”

The moneylender said, “I believe you, I believe you. It is not a haunted house. But won’t you give it to me for twenty-five thousand rupees?”

The old man said, “No, I won’t give it to you for less than fifty thousand rupees.” The old man knew that it was the moneylender who had been spreading the rumours, but he didn’t tell him.

Finally the moneylender said rudely, “Then take this fifty thousand rupees! Now it is my house!

The servant of the old man overheard the conversation and was very happy that the moneylender had finally bought the house. The servant said, “Since this moneylender has given such a hard time to my master, let me make some trouble for him.”

The servant secretly followed the moneylender back to his house. There he heard the moneylender tell his assistant, “Look, I have bought this house for fifty thousand rupees. Now I am going to tell the rich man from the neighbouring village that he should come and buy it.”

Then the old man’s servant went to the rich man’s house in the neighbouring village and said to the rich man, “I tell you, that is a haunted house. Everybody knows it. Don’t be a fool. Don’t buy that house.”

When the moneylender went to the rich man and offered to sell the house to him, he said, “You wanted to buy it for a hundred thousand rupees, but I am ready to lower the price a little. I can give it to you for a lower price.”

The rich man said, “No thank you! I have heard that it is a haunted house. I have heard this from someone who is very reliable, very sincere, very honest and very simple. I am not going to buy a haunted house — never, never!”