“Loan?” said the jeweller. “I never give loans.”
The man said, “Then I am not going to work for you any more because I need some money for my daughter’s marriage. I am a sincere worker. If you do not give me a loan, I shall go away.”
The jeweller wanted this fellow to continue working, so he said, “I will tell the whole world that you have stolen jewellery from my shop.”
The worker cried, “I have stolen jewellery?”
He was so disgusted that he started running away. The jeweller chased him. They passed by an old man who was selling some fruits. The worker ran to a nearby house and climbed up on the roof. The jeweller ran after him. Suddenly the worker fell down from the roof on top of the old man, and the old man was badly injured. Then the old man’s son started chasing the worker. The poor worker was an innocent fellow. He was only running away from the jeweller. But now there were two people chasing him. The fellow was running and running, although he had not stolen anything.
As he was running, the worker happened to see a camel. He wanted some protection because he was losing his balance. He reached for the camel’s tail, but the camel had no tail. The jeweller and the son of the old man were very near him. Now the owner of the camel saw him and also started chasing him. So the three of them were all chasing the innocent man.
The man ran and ran and ran until finally he dashed against a house. Alas, it happened to be the zamindar’s house. The zamindar was having breakfast with his wife and children. They were in the seventh Heaven of delight. But the wife got frightened when she saw so many people running towards their house, and she fainted.
The innocent man said, “Help! Save me, save me!”
The jeweller came up to the zamindar and said, “He has stolen my jewellery!”
The zamindar said, “This fellow has frightened me. I see that you have been chasing him. First give me one hundred rupees. Then only will I take up your case.”
The jeweller gave him one hundred rupees. Then the second fellow came up to the zamindar and said, “My father was badly hurt by this man. What kind of punishment will you give him?”
The zamindar said, “Now, you go to your father’s place. This fellow will stand exactly where your father was standing. Then you go on top of the roof, and from there you will jump on top of him.” The son would jump onto the innocent man, and then he would injure the poor fellow the way the father had been injured when the man was running away. The zamindar told him, “Go and jump on him! This is my judgement.”
The son said, “But I will break my legs!”
The zamindar said, “Why? When he jumped on your father, your father’s legs were broken, but nothing happened to this man. In the same way you will go up to the roof and jump down on him.”
The son said, “Oh, I do not want to do that!”
Then the third man came up to the zamindar with his camel. The zamindar asked, “What is wrong with you? And why is there no tail on your camel?”
The man said, “There is nothing wrong with me or with my camel. I was only watching the situation.”
The zamindar said, “But you also ran.”
The man said, “I was curious to see what was happening. Nothing has happened to my camel. My camel never had a tail. I was not actually chasing this man. I was just curious to see what was happening and why they were running.”
In this way the innocent man escaped the zamindar’s punishment.From:Sri Chinmoy,Life’s bleeding tears and flying smiles, part 3, Agni Press, 2001
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/lts_3