Two brothers

There were two brothers who were very fond of each other. One of them was a hard worker. The other was a very lazy fellow who always stayed home and slept. But the hard worker never blamed the lazy one. He always said, “God made him like that. What can he do? God also made me kind and affectionate to him. I will always work and do everything for him.”

Both of them were married. The wife of the lazy one did not appreciate the fact that her husband did nothing for her. He did nothing for the family either, and the relatives always ridiculed the wife. The wife felt miserable that her husband was so useless, whereas his brother worked so hard. Everybody always appreciated the brother.

The wife repeatedly begged her husband to start working. Finally he agreed and found a job. Soon he was working day and night. Everybody was pleased with him and appreciated him.

Suddenly the nice brother who had always worked hard stopped working. Now he began wasting his time just like his brother used to do.

This brother’s wife became sad and mad. She said, “Everybody is appreciating your brother now and not you.” She begged her husband to go back to work.

He said, “No! In this world we share our good and bad qualities. When I am perfect, he is imperfect. When he is perfect, I am imperfect. Since we are one, it has to be that way. This is how the world goes on.

“It is like day and night, light and darkness. When there is darkness, then only will people appreciate light. If there is only light, nobody is going to appreciate it. When my brother is darkness and I am light, at that time everybody appreciates how good I am. And when I am darkness and he is light, everybody appreciates how good he is.

“So in order to get real appreciation, one of us has to play the role of ignorance and the other has to play the role of wisdom. We share these roles equally. We are close brothers. This is how we want to go on. After some time if he becomes lazy again, then I will go back to work. Wisdom and ignorance must go together, just as darkness and light must go together.”

The hermit and the king's wealth

A king once wanted to go hunting in the forest. On the way he stopped at a hermit’s cottage. The king gave the hermit some expensive jewels and other things and said, “Now I am entering into the forest to hunt and I don’t want to take these expensive things with me. Will you take care of them for me?”

The hermit said, “I will, because you are such a nice king.”

The king said, “Do you want me to leave some guards to protect you?”

The hermit said, “It is a good idea to have guards. But I would appreciate it if the guards do not stay near my house. I would like them to stand so that I cannot see them. I don’t want to be bothered by them. I want only to pray and meditate. I am only a simple hermit. If people see your guards near my house, they may think that I have got expensive things here. Why not give your belongings to your guards in the first place? Then I won’t have to worry. Money creates such worries and anxieties!”

The king said, “I would like you, and not my guards, to keep my jewels. I am not pure, but I would like my possessions to become pure by remaining with you. You are a saint. If I give these things to you, then my golden rings and diamonds will become pure.”

So the saint agreed to keep the expensive things until the king came back. O God, in two hours’ time four hooligans passed by. They had never been to the hermit’s house, but when they saw the king’s guards moving around, the hooligans thought that perhaps the hermit had something valuable. They decided to wait a few hours. Then, if the guards fell asleep, that would be the time for them to enter into the hermit’s house and see what was there. After all, if there was nothing expensive, why would there be guards?

In three hours the guards fell asleep on the ground outside the house. The four hooligans went inside the hermit’s cottage and asked the hermit to give them whatever he had. They said, “We are sure you have expensive things because we saw those guards. If you have got anything from the king, give it to us. But if you make any noise, then we shall kill you!”

The hermit said, “I don’t want to hide anything from you. Here are the king’s jewels. You take them. But mind you, you are only four persons. The king has many soldiers and one day you will be caught.”

The hooligans laughed and laughed. While they were laughing so loudly at what the hermit had said, the guards woke up and caught them.

The hermit said, “What can I do? The king gave these jewels to me and these hooligans wanted them. They didn’t believe me when I said they would be caught.”

The guards wanted to thrash the bandits. Although they had got back the jewels, still they wanted to punish the hooligans. But the hermit said, “Please do me a favour. Since they were unable to take anything, you must forgive them. The king has got his possessions back, so the best thing is to forgive them.

“It is really your fault that these hooligans came into my house. It is only because you were asleep that they were able to enter. What were you doing when they came in? Who asked you to fall asleep? Since you were not dependable, since you did not do your duty, how can you expect these hooligans to be good?

“If the king finds out that they came into the house because you were asleep, he will be very mad at you. So if you punish the thieves, you yourselves will be punished. In every way it is better for them to go away without being punished.”

The guards listened to the hermit’s judgement.

The three hosts

One day a king and his minister went out for a walk incognito. The king said to the minister, “I really want to give something nice to everyone who is nice to us during our walk. I will give some reward to anyone who is hospitable.”

The king and the minister went up to one man and said, “We are two travellers. This is such a nice town and we would like to spend the night here. Do you think we could stay at your house as guests?”

The man insulted them, saying, “How do I know that you are not bad people?”

Then the king and the minister went up and knocked on somebody else’s door. When the man opened the door they asked, “Do you think we can spend the night here? We are travellers and now it is getting dark.”

The man said, “First tell me how many of you there are. Then I will say if I can allow you to stay.”

The king said, “You see that we are only two. We do not have much money, but if you allow us to stay with you, before we leave tomorrow morning we will give you some money.”

Then the king said, “Still it is somewhat light out, and your country is so beautiful. We will just walk around a little more and come back in an hour or so.”

So the king and minister continued walking. They approached another house and knocked on the door. The king said, “We are two travellers. It is getting dark. Could we spend the night at your house?”

The man said, “Certainly! Just tell me how many of you there are.”

The king said, “You can see that we are only two.” The king told that person also that they would come back in an hour or two. Then they went back to the palace.

The minister had taken down the address of each person to whom they had spoken, and the following day the king summoned all three persons to the palace. To the one who had insulted him the king said, “I don’t need you in my kingdom. When travellers come from a different kingdom, if you don’t give them shelter it is very bad. You could see that we were respectable people. We were not thieves.” So the king threw the man out of his kingdom.

To the second man the king gave a very large amount of money. To the third one, who immediately offered shelter and only afterwards asked how many were in their party, the king gave his crown.

He told the man, “In this kingdom we need the kind of people who offer everything without any hesitation and only then seek to determine how much is necessary. When we approached you, you didn’t ask how many were in our party. You just said, ‘Come, come!’ The other man first asked how many we had. If we had had more people, he might not have agreed to shelter us. We need more people like you.”

So the third man received the crown from the king and took it home as his most treasured possession.

The two wild ducks

A hunter once took his wife hunting with him in a forest, and there he killed two wild ducks. Both he and his wife were very happy and excited. The wife said, “I will make a most delicious meal from these two ducks.”

While they were on their way home, the head of the village saw them and asked, “Where are you going? I see you have two ducks. You have to sell them to me!”

Since he was the village head, what could they do? They couldn’t argue with him; otherwise, he would create such problems for them! After the village head bought the ducks for a large amount of money, the wife said to him, “Since these are most special ducks, I hope your cook knows how to cook them in a very special way.” Inwardly she was very sad and mad that they had met the village head.

The village head said, “You are saying these ducks are very special, but my wife died about a year ago and my cook does not cook well. Do you think you would be able to cook them for me? I will pay you.”

The woman said to herself, “If I say no, then we will be in trouble.” So she told the village head, “I will cook on the condition that you make everything ready for me, and also that your cook does not stay in the kitchen while I am preparing the duck. I don’t want him to learn from me. I want to be the only good cook.”

The village head said, “My cook will leave the ingredients for you and he will not stay in the kitchen.”

So the wife agreed. The village head took the ducks home and the husband and wife went to their own house. The husband was cursing his wife. He said, “Why did you agree? This is an insult to my pride. First of all, I had to give the ducks to him. Secondly, my wife now has to go and work at somebody else’s house like a servant.”

The wife said, “I am not acting like a servant. I am only doing him a favour. But don’t worry. You will eat the duck.”

The man said, “I do not think that he will give me any.”

The wife said, “I tell you, you will get the full amount.”

The husband said, “All right, let me see your capacity.”

The following day the wife went to the village head’s home and started cooking a most delicious meal. The cook was not there. The village head came in from time to time to watch.

He asked, “In an hour will I be able to eat?”

She said, “That is absolutely true.”

At one point the husband came to see if everything was going well. At that time the village head was upstairs. The wife asked her husband, “Did you see anybody on the street?”

The husband said, “Yes, I saw a soldier sleeping by the side of the road.”

The wife said, “When the village head comes back downstairs, tell him that a high-ranking officer is sleeping nearby. Say that if he invites that man to eat here, the officer will be so pleased that he will tell the king about him. He will say that this village head is a very nice man and the king will definitely give him a higher post. The king may even make him head of a city rather than just a village.”

In a few minutes, when the village head came downstairs, the husband said, “I came here to ask my wife if everything is going all right. On my way, I saw a high-ranking officer sleeping. He would be so pleased with you if you invited him to eat, especially since my wife is such an excellent cook. If he tells the king, the king may give you a very high post.”

The village head agreed. So the husband went and woke up the officer and invited him to eat. Then the husband went back home.

After the village head welcomed the officer, he went into the kitchen to ask the wife to bring the food. She told him, “I have been cooking here for such a long time. My clothes are now dirty and filthy and I didn’t bring an extra change of clothes. Do you not think it will look nicer if I serve the food in clean clothes? Then the officer will feel that your maid is clean and beautiful. Then in every way you will be able to please him.”

The village head said, “Then let me hurry to your house and bring you a change of clothes from your husband.”

As soon as he left, the wife went to the officer and started crying. “What is the matter?” asked the officer.

“I am not crying for myself, but for you,” she said.

“I am a great officer,” he said. “Nothing is going to happen to me.”

The wife said, “Do not be so sure. This man is physically very strong. Of course, you know your own capacity. But every year on this particular day, this man invites one or two guests. And what does he do?” Then the wife started crying again.

“Please tell me,” said the officer.

The wife said, “He takes out their eyes. Everybody has a hobby. This is his hobby!”

“Is this a joke?” asked the officer.

“No,” said the wife. “If I ask my husband, my husband will be able to tell you the names of all the people that he has done this to. When he becomes mad, he can easily handle three or four persons. If you feel that you are stronger than he is, then stay and fight. You are such a big officer.”

The officer asked, “Why do you work here?”

The wife said, “I don’t work here. Only today the servant has not come and because he is the village head, I had to help him. But you do not have to stay. It may hurt your pride to leave, but that would be the wise thing.”

The officer said, “Wisdom is always best. The best thing is to leave.”

The village head was just returning as the officer was leaving. “Have you eaten?” asked the village head.

The officer immediately began running away. The village head said, “He should at least take one of the ducks,” and he started running after him. He shouted at the officer, “Wait, wait, I will only take one.” The officer thought he meant that he would take only one eye instead of both, and he ran even faster.

While the village head was chasing the officer, the wife packed up both ducks and took them to her own house.

When the village head came back, after getting disgusted at having to chase the officer, to his surprise he saw that nothing was left. The wife said to him, “I am so sorry that the soldier ate everything. When I asked him to wait, he didn’t listen to me and ate everything himself. I am only a woman, so what could I do?”

The man without desires

Once a king wanted to know who was the happiest person on earth. Although everybody always flattered him, he knew how unhappy he was. When his subjects didn’t listen to him, he felt miserable. So the king asked one of his ministers, “Who is the happiest person on earth?”

The minister answered, “He who can drink nectar. He who can bring down Heaven to earth.”

The king said, “I am disgusted with you! What kind of answer is this?”

The minister said, “He who can see God is the happiest person.”

“Yes,” said the king. “But who can see God? Give me a better answer.”

This time the minister said, “He who has conquered desire.”

The king said, “This is all philosophy.”

“Then,” said the minister, “he who has fulfilled his desires.”

“Yes,” said the king. “When our desires are fulfilled, we are very, very happy.”

“But he is really the happiest,” said the minister, “who has conquered his desires. You may say this is all philosophy, but perhaps there are some sages who have actually conquered their desires. There are people on earth who are praying and meditating. Perhaps for them this is not philosophy at all; it is reality.”

“Go and bring them!” said the king.

So the minister left the palace in search of some holy men. He saw some persons very sincerely praying and meditating. He went over to one man and begged him to come to see the king. He said, “The king wants to see a man who has conquered his desires. Please come to show the king that you don’t care for earthly pleasures.”

The sage said, “All right, if he wants me to come, I have to go.”

The man came with the minister and the king was very pleased with him. The sage was very simple, very innocent and very pure.

Another minister, who was very shrewd, became jealous of the first minister. He did not want the first minister to be admired by the king. So he said to the king, “I am so happy that my friend has brought you someone who has conquered his desires. But I forgot to tell you that just now the Queen has sent a message that she needs you desperately for something. She wants to know if it would be possible for you to come and see her privately. Since you have to go and see her, perhaps this man can come back tomorrow.”

The king said, “Yes, the best thing is for me to see him tomorrow.”

The minister who had brought the sage asked the man if he could come back the next day and the sage agreed.

The following day, when the sage again came before the king, the rogue minister greeted him before the other minister arrived. He said, “So you have come!”

“Why not?” asked the sage.

“We are glad to see that you have conquered your desires,” said the minister. “But why have you come here? What for?” In this way the rogue minister challenged the sage.

The sage finally got annoyed and said, “Yesterday the king invited me and I promised that I would come here to prove that I am a desireless man. I am a desireless man and I want to prove it.”

The minister said to the king, “That means that he still has an eagerness to prove that he is desireless. He has this desire. Otherwise, why would he care about what you think? His desire is to prove that he is without desire. So he is not a desireless person.”

The king said, “It is true. He has not conquered his desires.”

The sage could have said that the king had invited him to come, so he was listening to the king’s request, or he could have said that it was the king’s desire that he was fulfilling. But instead the man got annoyed with the minister and didn’t think about what he was saying. Then he was caught.

The prince and the battle

Once there was a king who was very jealous of another king. So the jealous king increased the size of his army and asked his minister to get ready to fight. He said, “In a few days’ time we shall go to conquer our enemy.”

The minister said, “O King, that king is very powerful. Even in summer it would be difficult to conquer him. Now it is winter. We will have such trouble! Can you not wait for winter to pass by?”

The king became angry. He said, “You have to listen to me! Otherwise, I will find another minister.”

“I am giving you good advice,” said the minister. “If we fight during the winter we may lose. But I am always at your command. You know what is best for your kingdom. I shall work very, very hard and in a few days’ time everything will be ready.”

Then the minister went to the prince. He showed him a very sad face and started weeping. The prince said, “My father likes you very much. But if you weep, what will people think of you?”

The minister said to the prince, “What should I do?”

The prince said, “You are my father’s advisor, and you want me to be your advisor?”

The minister said, “Your father wants to wage war against a neighbouring king. But in winter it is always cold and raining. So how is your father going to win? He says he will fire me if I don’t prepare for battle. But I have such love for your father that I want to stop him from waging war now even if he fires me. If he fights now, he will definitely lose.”

The prince said, “Tomorrow I will save you. My father is always very affectionate to me, and he always listens to my loving demands.” The minister was so happy that the prince was going to save him.

The following morning the prince dug a small hole in the ground and put a mango seed inside the hole. Then he covered it with dirt and started watering it.

When the king saw him he said, “Why are you watering the ground?”

The prince explained, “There is a mango seed there.”

The father said, “Since it is winter there will be plenty of water. It rains so many times during winter.”

The son said, “Father, if I do this, then it will expedite its growth. If the mango plant ordinarily comes up in three months’ time, will it not come up in two or three days if I water it more?”

The father said, “You fool! In the rainy season more water is not needed at all. If you continue to water it, the hole will fill up with water and perhaps the mango seed will come out of the ground.”

The prince said, “Father, in winter every day it rains. When it is pouring people can’t see anything at all. Yet this is the time you are planning to attack somebody else’s kingdom. The enemy has shelter and food supplies, whereas you will have no shelter or supplies at all. So how are you going to conquer his kingdom? You will see that you will lose because of the rain.

“It is like watering this mango seed. I can’t expedite the growth of the plant no matter how much water I put on it. The seed will only come out of the ground instead of growing into a plant. The water will work to my disadvantage. Similarly, if it is raining and your soldiers attack the other king, they will be destroyed. No matter how many soldiers you send, they will all be killed.

“If you show your capacity in the spring, then you will be able to win. But if you go in the winter, you will only bring disgrace to your kingdom.”

The father believed the son and called off the attack.

Donkeys and dreamers

Once there was a king who asked his minister to bring to the court as many people as possible who could tell him fascinating dreams. He wanted to get joy from hearing their dreams. He said, “There are so many people who have had inspiring and challenging dreams. I will reward them if they tell me their wonderful dreams. Bring hundreds of dreamers to the palace!”

The minister said, “But your Highness, it will take days to hear all of their dreams.”

The king said, “No harm. From now on I will spend every minute listening to people’s dreams.”

The following morning the minister brought in front of the palace seven hundred donkeys. He said to the king, “O King, I went to these donkeys and asked them what their special talents were. All these donkeys told me that they can sing and play music well. Now I am very curious to hear them, and you also must be very curious to hear them.”

“You won’t like the music or get joy from it,” said the king.

“Why not?” asked the minister. “The hundreds of idle dreamers you have asked for are in no way better than these donkeys. These donkeys at least are useful to others since they carry all kinds of loads. But these idiots I am going to bring tonight are absolutely useless people. Their dreams have nothing to do with reality. It is all fabrication. Do you not think that those dreamers are worse than these donkeys? Why do you want to bring useless people to your court? Only if you bring useful people will your subjects be proud of you. Otherwise, what will people think of you?”

The king said, “You are wise. Let us not invite those dreamers to the palace. Now take away your donkeys.”

The gods gain Immortality

Brihaspati is the Guru of the gods and Sukaracharya is the Guru of the demons. Brihaspati’s and Sukaracharya’s disciples often used to fight. At that time Sukaracharya had a special power that Brihaspati did not have. Sukaracharya knew a particular mantra that could bring his soldiers back to life after they had been killed on the battlefield. The cosmic gods felt miserable that Brihaspati did not have that capacity. In other ways — in wisdom, compassion, forgiveness and other good qualities — Brihaspati was far superior to Sukaracharya. In wisdom-light he was superior to everybody. But in this one thing Sukaracharya surpassed him.

So the gods said to Brihaspati, “Your son Coch is so brilliant. Can he not go and learn that mantra from Sukaracharya? He can become Sukaracharya’s student and please him in every way. Then Sukaracharya will teach him the mantra.”

The gods were very tricky. They didn’t tell Coch the real reason they were sending him to Sukaracharya. They said they were sending him there to become a devoted student and to learn how to use weapons and other things. Coch was an innocent fellow and he had no idea of what the gods had in mind. So he went to Sukaracharya and asked to become his student. In those days, even if someone was your enemy, if you went to him as a student that person would still teach you. Sukaracharya had an especially big heart. So he said to Coch, “Yes, I will accept you as my student.”

In time, Coch became the favourite student of Sukaracharya. The other disciples of Sukaracharya became very jealous because their Master was paying so much attention to the son of their enemy. They also saw that Sukaracharya’s daughter, Debajani, had a tremendous fondness for Coch. The two were the same age and Sukaracharya’s disciples felt that she was hoping to marry Coch when they grew up.

Sukaracharya knew about his daughter’s love for Coch and he didn’t have any objection to their marriage. He said, “With all my heart I love my daughter and this boy I also love so much. He is such a nice boy.” Sukaracharya was just waiting for the day when they would be old enough to get married.

One of Coch’s main jobs was to take the cattle out to graze every morning. One day while Coch was with the cattle, the disciples of Sukaracharya killed him. When the young boy did not come back in the evening, Debajani became worried and went looking for him. She found him lying in the field and ran back home crying to her father. Sukaracharya went to where the boy was lying and uttered his special mantra in silence. Immediately the boy was revived.

Sukaracharya and his daughter were so happy, but the jealous disciples who had killed Coch felt very sad and miserable. Now what could they do? Once more they tried to kill him. This time, while he was in the field, they grabbed him and set fire to him, so that he was burned to ashes. Then they made a special drink and put his ashes into it. They brought the drink to Sukaracharya and said, “We have made a very special drink for you. Will you not have a taste of it?”

Sukaracharya said, “Fine. I will have a taste of it.” When he drank it, he felt a little bit uneasy. Then his daughter came running up and cried, “What have you done? I have just heard that your disciples put the ashes of Coch into a special drink. Now you have drunk it and he is totally gone! You will not be able to revive him.”

Sukaracharya said, “It is true. If I revive him, he will have to come out of me and then I will die. So either you have to accept the fact that he is dead, or if I revive him and bring him out of my body, then you will lose me. What shall we do?”

The daughter began crying uncontrollably. Sukaracharya said, “All right, I am an old man. I have enjoyed life and I have done many things, good and bad. What is the use of staying on earth any longer? Now is the time for me to retire. All of you leave me here. Secretly I will chant my special mantra. Then, since a portion of Coch still exists inside my body, I am sure he will be revived and come out of me and I will die.”

Sukaracharya chanted the mantra in silence and immediately Coch was revived. As soon as Coch came out of his Master’s body, Sukaracharya died.

It happened that when he had been inside Sukaracharya, Coch had heard him chant the mantra inwardly — although Sukaracharya never chanted it out loud. In this way Coch learned the secret mantra. As soon as Coch was revived, out of his sincere gratitude he immediately touched his Master’s feet and said, “Master, you have saved me.” Then he used the same mantra to revive his Master. Sukaracharya immediately blessed Coch and said to him, “You have learned the mantra from me, and now you have saved me with it.”

Coch said, “Previously when you revived me, I did not learn it. Only when you were using the mantra in silence and I was inside you did I learn it.”

So both Sukaracharya and Coch were alive and they were all so happy. Then a sadness dawned on Debajani. Because Coch had come out of her father, he was now her brother, and they could not get married. But at least she had got back her father.

So everything started with love. If the daughter had not loved Coch, then these things would not have happened, for the disciples of Sukaracharya would not have been so jealous. Then Coch showed his magnanimity when he revived his father’s enemy, Sukaracharya. But, in his willingness to sacrifice his own life for Coch, Sukaracharya was the one who really showed his heart’s nobility and generosity, like a real Master.

Here the actual winners were the cosmic gods. Now both Sukaracharya and Coch had the power to revive the dead. From that time on the demon-disciples of Sukaracharya could not defeat the gods because both parties knew how to revive their dead soldiers.

The cosmic gods justified their sending Coch to learn the mantra by saying, “As long as we got the badge of Immortality, even if by hook or by crook, then we did the right thing. Now our two sides are equally strong. This is the only way we will stop fighting.”

When Sukaracharya’s disciples came to know that the cosmic gods also had the same power, they didn’t want to fight any more since now both parties were equally strong. This is how the fighting between the gods and the demons came to an end.

The king's sincere workers

There was once a king who had two ministers. One day he said to his ministers, “Please submit to me the names of all the palace workers who are working sincerely. There are about five hundred workers altogether, so I would like to know which ones are sincere.”

The first minister brought the king a list of twelve workers. He said these twelve workers were very sincere whereas the rest were not sincere. The other minister brought a list of three hundred sincere workers.

The king said, “The insincere people may be needed a little, but they often cheat me. Only the sincere people deserve my special attention. I never get a chance to give the sincere ones a reward, so now I would like to reward them.”

To the one who had submitted only twelve names the king said, “How can we have only twelve people who are sincere out of five hundred?”

The minister said, “Many people are insincere. Some people work for just an hour or a half hour daily. Some don’t work at all. But you still keep them. You don’t want to fire them because you have a big heart.”

The other minister said, “King, O King, he is wrong. Without these three hundred people on my list, you could not manage. They are absolutely sincere. You try keeping only those twelve and you will see that it is impossible to manage.”

The first minister said, “I am not saying that the king should keep only these twelve people. I am only saying that the others are insincere. These twelve will never deceive the king. They do much work with utmost sincerity.”

The king said, “Let all of the five hundred workers pass by me one by one. I will look at each one and come to my own opinion.”

So one by one the five hundred workers passed by the king. As each one passed by, the king said, “I am sorry. I cannot give you a reward.”

At one point five workers came by in a row who were all very surprised that the king did not give them a reward. “It is quite unexpected,” each one of them said.

When everything was over, the king was confused. “Why did these five say that it was quite unexpected?” he asked. “All the others just remained silent.”

The king told the story to a very, very wise friend who, quite unexpectedly, had come to see him. “I don’t understand what it means,” he said.

The friend answered, “I tell you, O King, the minister who said that only twelve workers are sincere is right. But the one who said that three hundred are sincere, you should investigate.”

The king started his investigation by sending for the five who had been so surprised when he didn’t give them a reward. He said to them, “You five all said that it was ‘quite unexpected’ when I didn’t give you a reward. Why did you say that? I will give you lots of money if you tell me the truth. I assure you that I will not fire you or punish you if you tell me the truth.”

One of them said, “O King, all three hundred of us bribed the minister, but we paid him the most. Since we never work, we had to pay him more than the others. Then he promised that he would say we were among the good workers. Since we were paying him so much more than the others, he assured us that we would definitely get a reward from you and we were expecting it. This minister is very bad. On many occasions we bribe him. The other minister is the sincere one. He won’t accept bribes from anyone.”

The king immediately fired the bad minister. Then he gave a reward to the good minister and to the twelve sincere workers. He also gave money to the five who had confessed that they had bribed the bad minister and said, “From now on all my workers will work under strict supervision. This time if they don’t work sincerely, I will definitely fire them.” Then he gave his friend all his gratitude.

The scholar's four questions

There was once a great scholar. Everybody in the kingdom appreciated him because he was so learned. Unfortunately, although he was very learned, he also had great pride.

One day this scholar put on a gold necklace and went to the palace of another king. He said, “Whoever can defeat me in wisdom will get this necklace. I will challenge everybody!”

All the scholars in that particular kingdom had heard about this scholar, and they were afraid that they would lose. So they would not accept his challenge. The king was very sad that nobody would accept the challenge.

Finally, the court jester said, “I will accept the challenge.”

The king had practically surrendered to the scholar but he thought it would be amusing if his jester challenged him. He thought that he was just a joker and would not be able to win the necklace.

The court jester said, “I will ask you four questions. If you answer any of my questions correctly, then you will lose, but if all your answers are incorrect, then I will accept defeat and the king will give you anything you want.”

Then the court jester asked his first question: “Where do you come from?”

The scholar said, “I live here.” This was incorrect, since he came from another kingdom. So by giving the wrong answer the scholar passed the first test.

The jester’s second question was, “How long have you been here?”

“Three years,” the scholar said, which was also incorrect. Still the court jester was not able to trick him.

The third time the jester asked, “Our king is very nice, kind and generous. Do you agree?”

The scholar said, “Your king? What you are saying is totally wrong. Your king is very undivine, very unkind.” So again the scholar passed the test.

The court jester said, “It seems that I can’t defeat you. How many questions have I asked you so far?”

The scholar said, “You have asked me three questions and you have one more question. If I do not answer it correctly, then you will lose.”

The court jester cried out, “Look! The scholar has lost. He has answered this question correctly.”

So the scholar gave his necklace to the court jester, and the jester immediately gave it to the king. The scholar’s pride was totally smashed. He said, “I will never come to your kingdom to challenge anybody again.”

All the scholars were very impressed by the court jester’s cleverness. They knew that they would not have been able to defeat the great scholar. The jester said, “You see, when great scholars are not alert, they lose. Otherwise, had he been alert, he would have saved himself.”

Editor's preface to the first edition

The tales in this book, part of a collection that Sri Chinmoy has adapted from traditional Indian stories, have an innocent and childlike quality that appeals to the child in all of us. The stories have been performed as plays by Sri Chinmoy’s students.