Wicked Farmer - Clever Worker
Once in a Chinese village, there lived a wealthy farmer. He kept a retinue of employees to work on his farm. Strangely, they left one after the other, after working for a day or two. He would always find fault with them for not doing the work as per his instructions. They would either leave or be dismissed. The few who remained went about their work grudgingly. A time came when the farmer was unable to get fresh hands. He realized that no one from his village was eager to take up employment with him, and he would have to bring workers from neighboring places. He spread the word that he was looking for farmhands. One day, a youngster landed up at his doorstep. He looked a young man of poor circumstances. The wealthy farmer thought he could extract maximum work from him and probably would also be able to cheat him in regard to his wages. "You must do all that I ask you to do," he told the youth sternly "Otherwise, I won't pay your wages. You might even be dismissed. If you're agreeing to these conditions, you may stay back." "O, Master! I shall do whatever you ask me to," the young man said most humbly. "And I shall try to do it to the best of my ability." He joined duty immediately. Even on the first day, he completed all the work given to him and did not utter a word of protest or grumble. The farmer was really surprised. He was expecting protests whenever he gave him hard work and little time to complete it.
Yet, the youth kept mum. How then could he turn him out? If he were to be retained for more days, then he would have to be given his wages. The farmer began thinking of a way out to get rid of him. The next morning he called the young man. "Not far away, there's a hill where there's plenty of grass. You take the cow over there for grazing. You may allow it to roam about, you don't have to pluck the grass for the cow." The man led the cow to the hill. Instead of allowing it to graze, he tied the animal to a tree and began beating it, "Come on! Get on the tree!" he shouted. How could a cow climb a tree? The animal bleated and the man beat it non stop. Passersby stopped on hearing the pitiable cries of the cow. They ridiculed him, and some of them even went and reported the matter to the farmer. He came running where the cow had been tied. "What nonsense is this?" he shouted at his worker angrily. "Do you want to kill my cow?" "No, master," said the young man rather unconcerned. "This cow is disobedient. I asked it to climb up to reach the grass. But it's refusing to do so. Let me see whether I can make it obey orders!" He then began beating the animal again. The farmer was furious. "Stop it!" he shouted. "It's all my fault, I shouldn't have mentioned the hill. Take back the cow!" "But you only asked me to bring the cow here!" protested the youth. "You said I need not pluck the grass, but allow the animal to graze on its own. But it refused to do so, that's why I beat it! Now you want me to take it back home! Will you change your orders once I take it home?" The farmer was at his wit's end. Would there be no way to get rid of this idiot? he wondered. The next day, he called him and said, "The tiles on the roof are broad enough to grow vegetables. Get on to the roof and sow some seeds." He knew he was giving the man a rather tall order and he would not be able to undertake the job. And if he failed to do the job, he would have sufficient reasons to pack him off. The young man got on to the roof and began breaking the tiles.
Some pieces fell on the farmer who was taking rest below. "Hey! Why are you breaking the tiles?" he shouted at the man. "They are very hard. The seeds must have a soft base. That's why I'm breaking the tiles!" the worker shouted back. The farmer realized his folly. "All right, you come down!" The youth hesitated. "I climbed the roof only because you asked me to. Strange that you now ask me to come down!" The farmer began thinking of other strategies to send him away. The next day, he gave him a still more difficult job. "The seeds sown on the farm are all drying up in the hot sun. Go and pick them up and bring them back here." The young man concluded that his master must have gone nuts. Sowing seeds is easy, but picking up each and every tiny seed will not be that easy! Suddenly, the man was struck with an idea. He began breaking all the walls around the main door. The sound brought the farmer rushing to the door which was about to come down. "Hey, what are you doing? Have you gone nuts?" The man answered coolly, "I'm trying to widen the door. Only then can I bring in the field. All the seeds will drop on the floor once the field is turned upside down!" "You can stop with that, young man!" said the farmer. "I don't wish to know how you propose to bring the field here. In a roll?" The farmer then went inside and brought a bag of coins. "Take, here are your wages. And don't ever come back to me for work!" He heaved a sigh of relief when he saw the back of the youth vanish among the trees. But he felt ashamed that all his wily tricks had failed him once.
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