Windfall For the Forgetful
The husband was haughty; the wife was forgetful. A day did not pass without the wife, Sati, committing some blunder and the husband, Madhav, rebuking her. "I am going to Jodhpur, shall not back before evening. Do not expect me for lunch," Madhav informed Sati one morning before leaving home. Late in the afternoon, Sati paid a visit to Lakshmi's house a mile away. The two friends met after several months. Lakshmi's husband too was away. They remained engrossed in the gossip. They had an early dinner together. Then Sati said that it was time for her to go home and cook the dinner for her husband. "Let us chitchat for that much of time which you propose to devote to cooking. You can carry some food from my kitchen. There is enough left," said Lakshmi. The two friends sat down again and forgot the time. Madhav returned home in the early part of the night. He felt disgusted to see the house locked. He strolled before the house for a long time and once or twice went behind it to see if by any chance the door at the back had been left open by Sati. But, at least once Sati was found to be careful enough to lock both the doors.
A thief watched Madhav moving about in a suspicious manner. He concluded that Madhav too belonged to his brotherhood. He came out from his hiding and whispered to Madhav, "My friend, I know why you are hesitating to do the needful. It is because you are alone. But here am I ready to cooperate. You keep guard here. I will open the lock with my master key and see if there is anything valuable inside." Madhav was about to grab the fellow. But, on second thought, he decided to play safe. "But do not escape with all the booty. You must give me half," he said. "I promise to do so," said the thief. Soon he succeeded in opening the lock. He entered Madhav's bedroom and started handling the boxes. Madhav shut the room from outside and locked it promptly. "You must burgle my house with my cooperation, must you? Now, fellow, I will break your head if you break a single thing. Wait till it is morning," Madhav shouted into the room through the window. The thief was stunned. He pleaded with Madhav to be set free But Madhav had no reason to oblige him.
Tired that he was, Madhav fell asleep in another room. It was midnight when Sati realized that she had been quite late at her friend's house. She hurried back home and was surprised to see that the main door lay open. Looking in, she found the bedroom locked. "Woe to me! I locked the bedroom instead of the main door!" she took herself to task for her negligent conduct. She opened the bedroom. Like an arrow, the imprisoned thief ran away. The sound woke up Madhav. Looking at the perplexed Sati, he seethed in anger, but not for long. Soon his eyes fell on a bag left by the thief in his anxiety to make good his escape. The bag was full of glittering gold coins. The thief had managed to pick it up from a tavern, from a party of drunken officers of the king. The wealth was on its way to the royal treasury. The thief was under the impression that the bag contained ordinary coins. Had he known that they were gold coins, he would not have cared to go burgling another house! As soon as it was morning Mahdav started for the King's court. The king was so happy to receive the bag that he made a gift of the whole thing to Madhav. "Had you not forgotten the time, the episode with the thief would not have taken plae and we could not have grown richer by a bagful of gold coins!" Madhav told his wife time and again. He was no more an angry man.
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