Tuesday, March 6, 2007

Panchatantra - The Old Man, His Young Wife and The Thief

There lived an old widowed merchant in a city in the south. Though old, he did not giveup his desire for another wife. Therefore, he gave lots of money to a poor merchant and married his young daughter. She never loved her old husband. One day, when the husband and wife were sleeping on different sides of the bed, a thief entered their house. Shocked by the sight of the thief, the wife embraced her husband in fear.

The husband was both thrilled and surprised by the embrace and began thinking about what made her do so. He searched every nook and corner of the house and at last found the thief lurking in a corner. He then realised that his wife had embraced him because the thief had frightened her. The husband told the thief, “My dear young man, today I had the fortune of being hugged by my wife. Thanks to you. Take away whatever you want.”

The thief replied, “My dear sir, I do not find anything in your house that I could take with me. But I will come back soon and see if there is anything to carry away. Or, you could call whenever you need love from your wife.”

1 comment:

V.Chacko Jacob said...

If even a thief can be of use to someone then why not anybody else. The root cause of disrespect is sometimes the feeling that you feel someone is of no use to you.