Long ago, there was a town of exceptionally lazy people. They neither cleaned their houses nor kept their streets clean. They did not even bother to weed their vegetable patches. The chief of the town hated looking at the dirty streets and so every now and then he would start a clean-up campaign. But only a few people turned up to clean the town, and even they would stop working after one or two days. Then, the weeds would grow again and the streets became dirty. One day, a tornado blew through the town. Now, the town became dirtier than ever before. But the worst part was that a huge tree had been blown over and fell right across the main road leading to the marketplace. The trader carrying his produce was on his way to the market to sell it. But he found that the road was blocked by the tree.
The Obstacle
The trader murmured that he had no time to move the tree. So, he walked around the tree, and carried on his way. Then, came the second and the third trader and they also went along their way. No one bothered to do anything or remove the obstruction. Soon, the news reached the chief about the tree blocking the road. The chief asked, “Why don’t some of the men get together and move the tree away?” Days went by, but no one did anything to remove the obstruction. It remained where it was. The chief thought of a plan to teach his lazy townspeople a lesson. The next day, early in the morning, before the sun came up, he had taken some of his servants and got them to dig a hole under the tree. He hid some gold in the hole and then got it covered again. The entire act was kept a secret.
The chief returned to his home. He ordered his town crier to go round and instruct all the townspeople to gather at the spot of the fallen tree in the afternoon. As announced, all the townspeople gathered at the spot. The chief suggested to the townspeople that they could easily remove the obstacle if all of them worked together. One of the townsmen said, “The tornado put that tree here. Let’s ask the tornado to move it out of the way.” “Yes”, said another, “Why should we take pains?” “We can very well walk around it and go our way,” said another. The chief was annoyed. He was just about to give up when a very thin young man came forward. He was a poor farmer with no living relatives in the town. He went near the tree and started pulling and pushing to shift it. The other townsfolk just stood silent there and watched.
The Reward
For a while, the chief waited to see if anybody would come forward to help the young man. But no one came. So, he ordered his servants to help the young man. When the tree was moved to the side of the road, the chief went up to the young man, grabbed his hand and took him to the place where he had buried the gold that morning. The chief asked him to dig there, and promised him that whatever he dug out would be his. The young man started digging the road, and very soon discovered the gold. The chief said to him, “All this gold is yours. You deserve it, and you can do with it what you want to.” And to the lazy townspeople he said, “This is a lesson for all of you! Laziness doesn’t get you anything. You were lazy, so you lost all the gold. The people who work hard get rewards.”
