The Fraud Sage

Tenali Raman was a very wise man. Once, a sage visited his village. The villagers were excited as the sage was known to have performed many miracles. They gathered at the temple with specially prepared delicacies as offerings to the sage. Tenali Raman too went to see the sage. He sat near the sage. The sage began to recite some chants. To Raman’s surprise, he went on repeating the same chants. He felt something was fishy. The sage was a fraud. Suddenly, Raman shouted happily, “I have the key to heaven!” The villagers looked startled. “This sage is so great that if I keep the hair from his beard with me, I will be blessed forever!” said Raman. Hearing this, the villagers got excited. Immediately, they rushed to get hold of a hair from the sage’s beard. The frightened sage ran for his life and was never heard of again.
Moral: Hypocrisy is detected, sooner or later.