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.
"You can't. But why not forget the landlord's son? I have a son who is in no way inferior to the landlord's," said Prabhudas. Lest the physician should still hesitate to accept the proposal, Prabhudas whispered to him a plan whereby he could possess a pukka building. The physician was excited about the proposal. The very next night, his house was on fire. Nobody knew that all his valuables had been shifted to Prabhudas's house before the fire broke out. The villagers collected and they did their best to extinguish the fire, but no avail. Jeevan, followed by his wife and daughter, proclaimed that he was leaving the village. "All my life I have served the people of this village. But tonight some villagers set my house on fire. Why should I continue to live here?" he said with great agony. "Jeevan! Please listen to me. I am sure all the villagers will agree with me that you have been our savior. If you go away, we will be left in the lurch. Who will take care of our health? Your departure will be catastrophic to us," said Prabhudas. "Our headman is right. Please do not leave us," the villagers pleaded with him.
"But how am I to live without a house?" asked Jeevan. "Do not worry on that account, Jeevan. We the villagers certainly owe a house to you - a pukka house at that. What do you say, my friends? Should we not all contribute according to our capacity to the building of a house for our dear physician?" asked Prabhudas. "We must. The only problem is, we do not have enough money with us at this time of the year," said the people. "What for am I here then?" said Raichand loudly. "I am ready to lend you money. Feel free to tell me how much each one of you will like to donate for this very noble cause!" The villagers borrowed from Raichand, to pay him back with adequate interest later and gave generously to the physician's building fund. In a few months, Jeevan got a nice new house. And his son's marriage with Prabhudas's daughter was duly performed. Another few months passed. One day Prabhudas met Jeevan and said, "My friend, the document you had lost has come to my possession. In fact, I bought it from the burglars paying them a thousand coins. I can now claim your sister's property for my daughter-in-law."
Suddenly a painful suspicion crept into Jeevan's mind. "I am afraid, the burglar was none other than this fellow. He had stolen away the document. Now that my daughter is married to his son, he has come out with it," he thought. Instantly his mind was filled with hatred for Prabhudas. He kept quiet. The same day he met the cousins of his late sister's husband and confessed to them that the document which Prabhudas was going to produce was fake. Soon a quarrel broke out between Raichand and Prabhudas. "A part of the interest you will receive from the villagers should come to me, for it is I who created the situation for which the villagers had to borrow from you," Prabhudas insisted. "I burgled my neighbor Jeevan's house under your advice. I put fire to his house at the advice of both yourself and Jeevan. I have sinned so much on your account. Is that enough that I must give you a part of my profit?" asked Raichand. The quarrel among the three soon became public. The misdeeds of all three were exposed. The villagers united against them and the treacherous trio had to apologize to all. The villagers elected a new headman and they borrowed money from a cooperative fund. Soon they had a new physician among them too, a truthful one.
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