Once upon a time, there lived a poor farmer in a village. He had two cows. He made butter from the milk of the cows and sold it in the market. Thus, he brought up his family.
That day too, the farmer made butter lumps of 1 kg each and set out to sell them in the market.
The farmer went to a shop and said. “Hello, sir! Here is your butter. These are 20 butter lumps of 1 kg each.
The shopkeeper ordered his servant to put the butter lumps inside the shop. Handing over the payment to the farmer he said, “Don’t you need household items this time?”
“Why not, sir?” said the farmer, “Give me one kg of sugar, three kg of pulses, salt, spices and chilli powder.” Taking the household items from the shopkeeper the farmer was on his way back home.
After the farmer had gone, the shopkeeper thought, ‘The farmer comes to me every time with these butter lumps. But I never measure them. Why not measure them today?’
When the shopkeeper measured each butter lump, it weighed 900 grams only. The shopkeeper felt angry at the dishonesty of the farmer.
Next time when the farmer visited the shop with butter lumps the shopkeeper spoke out in anger, “O Ramdin, you are a cheat. I won’t buy butter from you. Your butter lump weighs only 900 grams.”
Hearing the words of the shopkeeper the farmer stated, “Sir, I am a poor man. I have no capacity to buy weights. I measure butter with the 1 kg of sugar you give to me and make lumps out of it.”
Hearing the reply of the farmer, the shopkeeper felt ashamed of his deed as he used to give 900 grams of sugar instead of 1 kg to the farmer.
It has been rightly remarked, “As you sow, so shall you reap.” The shopkeeper cheated the farmer and in return he himself got cheated.
Moral : One has to reap the harvest of one’s deeds.
The lazy grasshopper
Once upon a time, there lived an ant in a forest. One day, she made friends with a grasshopper.
The ant was hard-working whereas the grasshopper was lazy. The grasshopper did nothing but eat leaves and then sleep.
When summer was over, the ant began to collect food for the coming winter.
When the ant saw the grasshopper sleeping peacefully all the day, she got worried a lot.
She went over the grasshopper and stated, “O dear friend, winter is round the corner and you are sleeping peacefully.”
“What should I do then? Should I run here, there and everywhere like you?” the grasshopper spoke out angrily.
The ant replied patiently, “Winter is approaching. There will be snow all around. One won’t get anything to eat at that time.”
The ant added further, “If you too collect some food for yourself, you will spend the winter season comfortably; otherwise,you will have to repent later on.”
The grasshopper remarked irritably, “OK, I have heard you. Let winter come first. Go away; I will take a nap.”
Hearing the words of the grasshopper the ant returned. When winter set in, the ants had sufficient food.
But the grasshopper was roaming about in search of food. But he didn’t get even a single leaf to eat. He repented a lot but nothing could be done then.
Being distraught with hunger for some days the grasshopper breathed his last.
Moral : Laziness leads to one’s loss.
