Nikhil Khasnabish

In a village lived one hundred ninety-eight families, and among the members of those families, there were no intelligent people. The village was situated beside a river, from which the women carried water. They also bathed in the river. The men fished in the river. The river helped the villagers as a river helps people. In brief, people of the village depended on the river.

During rainy season, the river was flooded like any other rivers.

One afternoon, during the rainy season, the women, who went to the river to get water, returned home without water. They were panicked. They were so panicked that they couldn’t describe what had happened to them.

‘What has really happened to you,’ the old wise man of the village asked.

Not answering his question, they only pointed towards the river.

When the old wise man pressured them, they said that they’d seen something like an animal floating ominously right in where they used to fill their pitchers; it seemed that it was stuck to the riverbank with some evil forces. The women stopped cooking and eating. They kept their children in front of their eyes. They asked their children not to even look towards the river. The panicked children didn’t disobey.

Then, to judge what it was actually, the old wise man went to that place. They showed him the animal moving with the waves breaking on the bank. He studied it from different angles. He got puzzled, unable to decide what it was, whether it carried some ominous signs not good for the village. To save his prestige, he then told the women that it was a small tiger and not harmful. But he wasn’t sure what it was. Failing to identify it, he wore a sombre look that frightened the women more than before.

After the news had been spread all through the village, the people of the village, both young and old, arrived on the riverbank and studied the animal.

The old wise man spent two sleepless nights, being unable to identify the animal. Then one morning, looking at the rising sun, he made a plan to select the most intelligent boy in their village and then to send him to a village far from theirs and spend two years there to study under a guru to become wise.

People of the village listened to the old wise man’s advice and sent the boy they had selected after thorough examinations to the village of wise gurus. A large amount of money was spent on the education of that boy.

After two years, when the boy returned to the village, armed with wisdom, the villagers celebrated his return and became confident of having no such problems.

Like every year, in the rainy season, the river normally high. That year, the women saw another small animal floating close to the riverbank. As soon as they saw it, they returned to their homes, without taking water and reported to the old wise man. Now bold and confident, the old wise man sent for the wise boy.

With the wise boy, the villagers went to the riverbank.

When the old wise man, who failed identify the animal, ordered the boy to examine it with his scanning eyes, the boy, who was also as stupid as the other villagers, became puzzled. Then looking back at the anxious villagers and remembering the larger amount of the money they had spent on his educational expenditure and the money they were now giving him for his living a comfortable life, he felt fear strike him all of a sudden and he burst out crying. When all those people, who looked more afraid than him, asked him the reason why he was crying like a frightened boy, he looked at them, wiping his eyes. Why should he cry, being afraid to identify the animal? He burst out laughing.

The curious villagers gathered around him and wanted to know the reason why he cried and laughed.

He actually cried because he became afraid of the villagers when he failed to identify the animal. Then when he thought they were also stupid people, who would now believe whatever he told them, he laughed.

‘You people couldn’t identify the object that you see every day in our village. It’s a piglet. What will happen to you in my absence? I cried, thinking of your stupidity.’

‘Our money has been properly utilised. We’ll never let you go from the village. We’ll give you the best food, best shelter so you can live a life of comfort and happiness,’ the old wise man said.

The villagers supported the old wise man in one voice.

‘Why did you laugh out loud?’ the old wise man asked.

‘I laughed out loud because I thought to never leave my village, betraying the trust of my villagers.’

The old wise man raised his right hand and said, ‘God bless you with a long life, our wise boy.’

But it was not a piglet: it was a big rat.