The Clever Four
In a certain village lived a wealthy farmer. He had gardens, orchards, and landed property scattered at different places. He had four able-bodied sons and he ought not to have found it difficult to manage his estates. But, the pity was the sons were just strange!. "Give them work. The responsibility will make them exercise their minds. They will grow wise." This was a friend's advice to the farmer. The farmer nodded in appreciation of the advice. He called his eldest son. "Will you please proceed to your maternal uncle's house and see how they are?" he asked. The young man was ready to set out on his journey. "Look here, boy, there is scarcity in your uncle's village, not even water and fire are available without difficulty. Do not spend more than two days there, even if they implore you to stay on," said his mother. The young man, who thought himself clever, carried fire and water in two pots. Since it was difficult to carry two pots, he poured the water into the pot that contained the fire and threw away the empty pot. He reached his destination. One of his uncles asked him. "What is there in the pot?" "I understand that there is a scarcity of water and fire in this area. I have brought both," the young man replied smartly. "Water I see, but where is the fire?" "Under the water!" was the reply. The uncles had a hearty laugh.
The report of the young man's adventure reached the farmer. He sighed and realized that it was futile to expect much from his eldest son. One day he asked his second son to go to the fields and supervise farming. The boy was happy to go out. The workers were about to scatter the Til seeds in the fields. The young man picked up a handful of those seeds and munched them. "My young master, you'll find fried Til very tasty," said a worker. He then took a handful of raw seeds into the hut and brought them back, fried. The young man was very pleased with the taste of the fried Til. "Fry the entire stock of seeds!" he ordered. At first, the workers thought he was joking. "It seems you like this. We can fry some more for you!" they said. "Do as I say!" thundered the young man. "You obey me or I dismiss you." "If we fry all the seeds, what do we sow?" they asked. "You are wiser than I, eh? Fry them first, ask me next!" All the seeds were fried. "What next?" asked the workers. "Now scatter them in the fields, you fools! We will get a sweet crop of fried Til. What blockheads you are to go on sowing raw Til and reaping raw Til year after year!" observed the young man.
The workers stood stunned. The report of the incident reached the father. He remained sad for long. No longer did he dare to ask the second son for any work. The farmer had a diary in a distant village. The manager of the diary went on leave. The third son was sent there to take charge of it. "Stop milking the cows from today," was the young man's first order. "Why?" asked the surprised servants. "I'm no fool to disclose the reason now," said the young man gravely. The servants kept quiet. Three weeks passed. On the eve of a great festival, the young man called the servants and said, "Milk the cows now. The price of the milk has gone up, thanks to the festival. Do you fools now realize why I let the milk accumulate in the cows for three weeks?" The servants did not know what to say. One of them said at last, "Master! Why didn't you tell us of your motive earlier?" "Why should I? I did not want my secret to be leaked out to other traders!" replied the young man. The servants looked at one another and wiped the sweat from their foreheads. The cows did not yield even the regular daily quantity of milk. The news reached the father. He called back his son. He now wanted to try his last son. He gave him two thousand coins for capital to start some business. The happy young man went out in search of luck. From a depot near a forest, he bought sandalwood sticks with all his money.
He hired a cart and went out to sell his ware for profit. He offered them to a number of shopkeepers. But they said that they would like to buy their need from their regular suppliers. The young man was running out of patience. He had traveled quite far. He asked some people of a village, "What is it that you don't get easily?" "Well, we don't get coal easily," said the villagers. The young man smiled. He immediately made a fire and changed his sandalwood into coal. But the price the coal fetched was no more than a mere twenty coins. "What is available cheap here?" he queried. "Cotton," he was told. He bought cotton for the twenty coins and proceeded to a market where he desired to sell it. "We don't buy unpurified cotton," said the cotton sellers. The young man saw a goldsmith putting his gold into fire. "What are you doing?" "Purifying the gold," replied the goldsmith. "I see! So, this is how things are purified!" mused the young man. He dug a pit and made a fire in it. Then he went on consigning the cotton bales into the flames. After the fire subsided, a strong wind blew the ash away. The young man returned home and reported his adventure to his father. The father sighed. "God Help me!" he murmured.
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