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Articles: Moral Stories | Panchatantra stories
- Mr. Siri Siri
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THE SPARROW AND THE MONKEY
There used to live a pair of sparrows in a forest. They had their nest on the branches of a Shami (silk cotton) tree. One day, during the winters, a monkey arrived there. He was shivering with cold and sat under the thorny bush. His teeth were clattering.
Seeing his condition, the male sparrow said -
'It is a pity that inspite of having your hands intact, you are suffering in this chilling weather. You could have constructed a home for yourself with these hands and have easily avoided this situation'.
The monkey became angry and asked the sparrow to shut up. After sometime, the sparrow again uttered the same words. The monkey again asked her to stop talking nonsense. But the sparrow kept on uttering its words repeatedly. At last, the monkey thought:
'This wicked sparrow is making fun of me. He thinks himself to be too intelligent'.
Right then, the sparrow started advising him once again. Now the monkey’s anger crossed all limits. In his anger, the monkey destroyed the nest of the sparrow.It has been rightly said that an uninvited counselling brings havoc to the counsellor.
After completing his story, Kartak again admonished Damanak -
' O fool Damanak! Inspite of my preaching you did not learn anything. As I said it is not your fault, because the knowledge is beneficial only for virtuous people, not for immoral people'.
'A wicked person fails to realize about his own destruction, being happy at the sorrows of other people. The torso keeps on dancing even after the head had been severed'.
Then Kartak narrated the story of Dharmabuddhi and Paapbuddhi in which there was a description of an incident where a son named Kubuddhi had killed his father by suffocating him to death. Damanak asked about the story. Kartak narrated the following tale.
DHARMABUDDHI AND PAAPBUDDHI
There used to live two friends in a city. Their names were Dharmabuddhi and Paapbuddhi. Dharmabuddhi was very intelligent but Paapbuddhi lacked intelligence.One day, Paapbuddhi decided to migrate to another place and earn wealth with the help of Dharmabuddhi. He had also decided to misappropriate Dharmabuddhi’s wealth deceitfully in the end.
One day, Paapbuddhi said to Dharmabuddhi -
'Friend! Do you remember any of your deed that would make you proud in your old age? Do you have anything worth remembering to share with your children? What would you tell your children unless you visit foreign land? A person’s life is meaningless unless he learns about various languages and cultures travelling to far off places'.
Dharmabuddhi got the point and he agreed to accompany him to a foreign land.One fine morning, both the friends set out on their journey. They migrated to a foreign land and established their businesses. Both of them earned lot of wealth and money. At last, they decided to return to their native place.
When they were about to reach their city, Paapbuddhi advised Dharmabuddhi -
'Friend! It would not be proper for us to go to our houses with so much of wealth. Our relatives and friends would start demanding money from us. Therefore we must bury the major portion of the wealth in the ground right here in this forest and carry as little money as we can. We would come whenever the need arises'.
Dharmabuddhi agreed. Both of them went to their house after burying the major chunk of their wealth in the ground.
In the night, Paapbuddhi went to that place and dug out all the wealth. The next morning he said to Dharmabuddhi -
'Friend! We have a large family to support. So we must bring our wealth'. Both of them went to that place. When Dharmabuddhi found the wealth missing he started wailing in grief. He was sure that this was the craftiness of Paapbuddhi. He said to Paapbuddhi -
'Give me my wealth otherwise I would lodge a complaint with the king against you'. But Paapbuddhi fraudulently refuted this charge. Both of them started making charges and countercharges. Ultimately, they went to the royal court to get justice.
The presiding judge of the royal court asked them to take oath. Paapbuddhi did not want to take oath. He complained to the judge that this was not the appropriate way of giving justice. He said to the judge -
'The norm is to examine the documentary- proof first of all. In its absence, the judge should try to find out if there was any witness to that crime. Taking oath is the last resort'.
Continuing with his statements, Paapbuddhi said -
'Vandevta (the deity of the forest) is our witness. Only he knows about the real culprit'. All the courtiers were satisfied by his logic. All of them decided to make a request to the forest deity the next morning. Paapbuddhi then requested his father to go and conceal himself in the hollow of a Shami (silk cotton) tree in the forest and advised him:
'When they ask you about the culprit. Tell them the name of Dharmabuddhi'. Next morning accompanied by all the courtiers and the judge Paapbuddhi went to the forest. Standing in front of the Shami (silk cotton) tree Paapbuddhi shouted -
' O deity of the forest, you know who is the real culprit. Tell us his name'.
Paapbuddhi’s father, who was sitting in the hollow of the Shami (silk cotton) tree, shouted in loud voice -
'Dharmabuddhi is the culprit. He has stolen all the wealth'.
Everybody was amazed at this revelation. Dharmabuddhi was dumb struck. He understood that Paapbuddhi might have hatched some sort of conspiracy. He decided to unearth the conspiracy.Dharmabuddhi collected dry grass and woods and after piling them around the hollow made a big fire. After sometime, half-burnt father of Paapbuddhi came out of the hollow. When he found everybody looking at him in astonishment, he narrated the whole story. After revealing everything he died.
Praising Dharmabuddhi, the judge decided to give him all the wealth and said -
'It is the duty of an intelligent man to take both the negative and positive aspects of the means that he applies into consideration, otherwise he is certain to meet the same fate as it happened with the foolish duck'.
Dharmabuddhi curiously asked -
'What happened to the duck'. The judge narrated the following story. -
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