The
old and ailing man, father of three sons, anticipated his death and therefore,
told his last wish to the village chief, who was near him at that time. He
said, “I have already distributed whatever I owned to my sons and my wife,
except for a few camels that are yet to be distributed. I request you to ensure
that my eldest son gets half of the camels I have; out of the remaining camels,
two thirds should go to the son next to the eldest; and two thirds of what was
left thereafter may please be given to the youngest one. Please do it as
quickly as possible so that they do not quarrel with each other.” After having
said it, the old man died.
After completion of the last rites of the old man, the
village chief ordered that all the camels must be sent to him when they
returned from the places they were sent to. The words of the village chief were
final. After a reasonable time seventeen camels reported to be owned by the
dead man were assembled at the chief’s place. This became a cause of great
worry for the village chief, as there was no way to distribute them according
the last wish of the dead man. Those were the days when the village chiefs were
used to be men of impeccable character. The village chief consulted the chiefs
of nearly villages, but to no avail. He had lost his sleep and his health
started deteriorating day by day. One day the village chief came to know that a
saintly wise man was expected to visit a nearby village in next few days. He
left a special invitation for the saintly man in the village, he was scheduled
to visit.
Finally the day came when the saintly wise man entered the
village of the dead man. After making elaborate arrangements for the comfort of
the visitor and allowing him to take enough rest, the village chief met the
saintly man and told him his problem. The saintly man told the village chief
that the problem was a bit difficult for him also and he would revert to the
chief within a few hours.
As promised the saintly wise man went to the place of the
village chief with his camel. He requested that all the three sons may be
called to receive the camels as desired by their deceased father. Before the
sons arrived the saintly man handed over his own camel to the village chief and
said, “Now, you have eighteen camels to distribute. Just follow the dead man’s
instructions.”
Nine camels (half of the available camels) were given to the
eldest son. Out of the remaining nine camels, six camels were given the next
son and two to youngest son. Seventeen camels owned by the dead man were
distributed exactly according to the last wish of the dead man. The saintly
man’s camel was still waiting for distribution, but, that was no more needed.
The saintly wise man asked the village chief if he could take away his camel.
The saintly wise man said to the astonished village chief, “Fairness in accounting
can be achieved if one has all the intentions of giving away.”
[This story is not written by the author of this blog. It is
only being retold by him to communicate something very important.]
PROMOD KUMAR SHARMA
[The writer of this blog is also the author of “Mahatma A
Scientist of the Intuitively Obvious” and “In Search of Our Wonderful Words”.]
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