By Zung Ring,
Once
upon a time, in a village, there were egotistical brothers. They
respected no one. They were afraid of no one. They were ashamed of no
one. Basically they didn’t care anyone.
There was also a pitiful orphan in the village. He
grew up under the care of his grandfather. They were so poor. They
lived in a small tent outskirt of the village. The poor child faced the
arrogant brothers’ bully on daily basis.
One
day, the villagers were to clear bushes along roads. Collective labors
were required. But on that day, the orphan could not go. So, he gave a
pork leg for lunch to villagers who came to provide their labors for his
absence. However, the brothers threw the pork leg to sidewalk instead
of making it lunch. In the evening, the poor child became the subject of
ridicule to the brothers and returned the pork leg saying that the pork
leg didn’t do anything just sitting on sidewalk the whole day. The pork
was now dirty with dirt and the poor child was in the state of
embarrassment and intimidation from the superior brothers and hesitated
whether to take the pork back or not.
Not
long after that, the brothers invited the orphan to a trip for trapping
birds. The poor child agreed to join. When they arrived in forest, they
spotted a big banyan tree with full of fruits which draw all kinds of
birds and herbivores. The brothers immediately monopolized the whole
tree. They laid their traps on all of the branches giving no opportunity
to the poor child. The lonely child was left with no good option so he
just disappointedly laid his traps beneath the tree.
On
the next morning, the brothers got up early and returned to forest to
check their traps before the orphan did. As they approached to the site,
a deer was caught in the orphan’s trap that greatly disturbed the
brothers. In their traps however, only a hornbill was caught. They now
decided to switch the preys out of jealousy before the poor child
arrive. When the poor child arrived, he was very shocked by very unusual
scene - a deer was hung in the air while a hornbill was caught in his
trap on the ground.
The
poor child knew that the brothers have exchanged the preys and felt
being bullied. He demanded to give him the deer back. The arrogant
brothers laughed at him saying “don’t you see that the deer was caught
in our trap? It is ours. We can’t give it to you.” The lonely child
argued with them but he was overwhelmed by the brothers. Finally, the
poor child proposed to bring their case to the village council and to
let the council decide. The brothers were delighted by the proposal
because they believed that the council would decide in their favor for
they know all of elders. All the village elders have received gifts from
the brothers at least once.
For
the judging day in the council, there was no shortage of supporters for
the brothers since they were powerful and wealthy. On the other hand,
it was already challenging enough for the unfortunate orphan to find
even a supporter. But he eventually managed to find a very old man in
the outskirt of the village who seemed willing to support the child. No
one noticed his existence in the village because he was also poor and a
man of few words but was wise. The boy told him the whole story and
requested him to support him in the council on ruling day. The wise man
agreed.
The
day had come. Now, the proud brothers and their supporters were waiting
for the poor boy in the village council. As expected the council was
filled with the brothers’ supporters. Everyone was trying to mock the
deprived boy. Time was running late yet the boy has not arrived. Some of
the elders began to get angry and proposed to declare the brothers
winners in the absence of the poor boy. However, the brothers insisted
to wait for the boy because they wanted to humiliate him in front of the
whole villagers in the council.
At
the same time, the unfortunate boy went to the old wise man’s home and
was waiting for him the whole morning. The wise man did not say anything
whether he changed his mind or not. The little boy was timid and dared
not to push him or told it’s getting late. So, he chose to wait for the
wise man until he’s ready. About at noon time, the wise man said to the
boy, “Now let’s go”. The boy was of course delighted for he was worried
the whole morning. The wise man deliberately chose to be late for the
council for his strategic purpose.
As
the wise man and poor boy were arriving to the council, they were
ridiculed by the brothers’ supporters. Inside the council, the elders
(councilors) also condemned the twos for being late. As the meeting
proceeded, one of the elders provocatively asked the old man, “You are
old but you seemed don’t know our tradition that we solved such kind of
case in the morning? Why you came so late?” The old man replied wisely
as the following.
“Honorable
councilors, I am sorry for being late. Please receive my sincere
apology. I know that we have a unique custom of judging cases like this
one in the morning. I have no intention to ruin our beautiful tradition.
However, I was late for good reason. On my way the council, I have
crossed a river. As I was crossing, I saw wild fire on sand bank. Thus, I
collected water with my bamboo basket to extinguish the fire. That’s
why I was late.”
The
old man was immediately booed. The councilors ridiculed him by saying
how foolish is it for you to say that there was wild fire on sand bank
and collect water with bamboo basket to extinguish the fire. The old man
paused and gently replied.
“Honorable
councilors, yes you are absolutely right about that. It is foolish to
believe that there is wild fire on sand bank and collect water with
bamboo basket to extinguish fire. Don’t you also think that it is
foolish to believe that deer which has no wings was caught in the trap
which was laid up in the air? And hornbill which doesn’t live on the
ground was actually caught in the trap laid on the ground?”
The whole council was dead silence. After
the brief silence, an audience from a corner broke the silence with
claps. The silence was soon replaced with tumultuous standing ovation.
The councilors and brothers now blushed at their own arrogance,
ignorance and stupidity.
Without
further arguments, the council delivered its just verdict that the poor
orphan was the winner and deer was also returned.
The
dishonest brothers left the council with great disappointment and
embarrassment while the poor boy left with victorious joy.
Moral Lesson: Justice prevails.
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