Sheikhchilli’s uncle had a friend who worked for the Nawab of that area. Some enumeration work was going on in the state. The Nawab wanted to know how many villages his state had and how many households each village was populated with. The administration was getting the work done by people hired on contract basis.
Through the good offices of that friend, the uncle got Sheikhchilli hired as an enumerator.
He was briefed about his work,”Young man! You shall go to every village, count the households, get the thumb impressions of the members of each family and bring them to this office. For every thumb impression you will get a paee. I have heard that you do some stupid things. Don’t mess up.”
Sheikchilli was annoyed why everyone thought he was a stupid person.
He decided to prove to his uncle that he was no stupid fellow. Sheikhchilii started his job of going to villages and collecting the thumb impressions. His uncle was very happy to see his nephew doing some hard work as it seemed.
The work was finished in 15 days.
Sheikhchilli came back on the last day with the money he had earned and said to his uncle, “Uncle! Your friend thought that I was a stupid boy. I showed him I was no stupid.”
“How did you do that?” the uncle asked.
“I collected many, many thousand thumb-impressions. But I gave him only 150 impressions. The rest I threw away!”
The uncle stared at his silly nephew who had thrown away his wages. He at once decided to send Sheikhchilli back to his mother.
Moral : Loss or gain does not matter for a fool.
