The Clever Trio
The people of Sobhanagar were good-natured but poor. Queer though it might sound, they were quite happy to be poor! For, they had been told that to be rich was a botheration. And, who do you think had told the people so? The three rich men of the village - Prabhudas, the village headman, Jeevan, the physician, and Raichand the moneylender. Prabhudas quoted false laws and whenever two parties quarreled, he swindled both. Going to diagnose people's sickness, Jeevan never tired to utter lies. He would give a bombastic name to an ordinary ailment and would declare that rare herbs were necessary for preparing the medicine. The patients would be obliged to pay heavily. So far as Raichand was concerned, his method of exploitation was simpler. He charged excessively heavy interest. Once while Prabhudas was not at home, his son fell sick. Prabhudas's wife called Jeevan. The physician examined the young man, made a grave face, and told the anxious mother, "My sister, to be frank, it is a serious case. However, I promise to do my best. I have to mix an ounce or two of gold dust with medicine. I will charge nothing as my fees, all you have to do is to..." Even before the physician had completed his sentence, Prabhudas's wife took out one of her costly gold bangles and offered it to the physician.
Just then, Prabhudas returned home. Experienced in the ways of the world that he was, he could at once understand that his wife was being duped. But he could not say a word looking at her weeping face. If tears came to his eyes too, it was because he saw his wealth reduced by a gold bangle! The physician soon prepared the medicine which, he claimed contained gold dust. The young man was not out of his suffering immediately, but he was much better in a week's time. "Ha! Ha! My medicine could not have failed him," said the physician boastfully. "Ha!Ha! I too will not fail to teach you a lesson!" thought Prabhudas, though he did not utter a word. A few days later Prabhudas had a confidential talk with Raichand who was Jeevan's neighbor. One night Jeevan came running to Prabhudas and cried out, "My friend! There has been a burglary in my house. Some utensils are stolen. But I don't mind that. What is a much bigger loss to me is a document which had been executed by my late sister. She had bestowed her property on my daughter. The landlord has agreed to my proposal for his son to marry my daughter because my daughter will inherit that property. What am I to do if the document is lost?" "I understand the situation, brother, but it is rumored that the document you speak of is a false one. You prepared it while your heirless widow sister was in her death bed. In fact, you put the impression of her finger in the document after she was dead!" said Prabhudas. "Do not believe in such rumors. The document is genuine. But how can my daughter marry the landlord's son in absence of that document? How can I win the property from the clutch of my sister's husband's cousins without that document?" asked the physician with great agony.