Actually, this friend had a reputation in the village for borrowing money and never repaying it. But, since the money-lender happened to be one of his close friends, the money-lender had thought that this time the fellow’s promise was sincere. Unfortunately, it seemed that his friend had no intention of returning the money. No matter how many times the money-lender begged him to return it, he simply refused.
Now that the rogue-friend had accumulated a considerable amount of money, he decided to go to the market and buy a cow. He did not know that the money-lender was following him secretly. He examined all the cows at the market but did not find any cow that satisfied him. He said, “Bad luck, bad luck! Some other day,” and began walking back to his village.
The money-lender continued to follow him. All of a sudden, from behind a bush, a bandit appeared with a knife. He grabbed the rogue-friend and said, “You look like a wealthy man. Drop your wallet here! Otherwise, I will stab you without any hesitation!”
The fellow cried, “Do not kill me! I am dropping my wallet right here where you can see it.” As he turned to run away, he saw the money-lender behind him and screamed, “Here is your money! Now come and take it.”
The money-lender said he did not want to fight with the bandit, so he, too, ran away.
The bandit grabbed the wallet and disappeared into the bushes.
The following day, the money-lender wrote a note to his friend who had not returned the money. The note said, “You borrowed 100 rupees from me on the condition that you would return it in one month. Now four months have passed, so I have added the interest to the original amount. It was I who hired the bandit to steal your wallet. There was no other way for me to get back my money, so I have added his fee to what you owe me. You had more than enough money in your wallet to cover everything. The money that is left I am returning to you. I have taken only what is justly mine. What a rogue you have turned out to be! You had so much money in your wallet, but you could not return the amount that you borrowed from me four months ago. I am sorry our friendship had to come to an end in this way.”
If this friend had kept his promise and returned the money on time, there would have been no interest and no robbery, and his friendship with the money-lender would have been preserved. Because of his insincerity, he was compelled to suffer such heavy losses.From:Sri Chinmoy,Amusement I enjoy, enlightenment I study, part 3, Agni Press, 1997
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