Once upon a time, there lived a famous king. One day, the king decided to hold a big puja and sent invitation to all the famous pundits living in the area to participate in the puja.
Puret Ba was also walking to the palace to participate in the puja when he saw a large tiger trapped in a wooden cage near the jungle. The villagers had caught the tiger because he had been stealing lambs from the village. Puret Ba stood by the cage and looked at the tiger. The tiger had been in the cage for a few days and was very hungry. At the moment he wanted to get out and eat the man at any cost.[break]
The tiger immediately made a plan. As Puret Ba was about to go his way, he realized that the tiger was repeatedly bowing. When he was sure that he had caught Puret Ba’s attention, he, with all the politeness he could muster, said, “Puret Ba, I’m very thirsty. Can I have a drink of water?”
Puret Ba was a very simple and kindhearted person. He looked around and saw a river nearby. But unfortunately, he did not have anything to carry the water in. So he said to the tiger, “I don’t have anything to give you water in. So you’ll just have to stay as you are. Sorry about that,” and prepared to leave. The tiger did not lose hope and tried one more trick.
He said, ‘Puret Ba, you’re on your way to the puja. If you let me drink water, you’ll earn more ‘punya’ for doing a good deed. I’ll come back to the cage again when I’ve drunk the water from the river. Oh great Puret Ba, please open the cage door, just once.”
Hearing this from the tiger, the Puret got startled and said, “Oh really! When I open the door, you’ll eat me up! No, no I can’t open the door for you.”
Saying thus, he started to walk away from the cage. The tiger was smarter. He knelt on his knees and started pleading again.
“Sir, you just open the door of the cage, and I’ll drink water and come back. I beg of you. I’m indeed very thirsty.”
The tiger’s attitude melted the Puret’s heart. He thought, After all, he’s a tiger. What if he eats me?
Thinking thus, he thought of extracting a promise from the tiger that he would return to the cage again after drinking the water. After this, he asked the tiger, “Okay, but if I let you out, what’s the guarantee that you won’t eat me? And how can I be sure that you’ll return to the cage?”
The tiger was surprised to hear such questions. He did not believe that getting out would be that simple. Still, he had to think of something to convince Puret Ba that he would return to the cage. He said, “Oh, I was caught because I was too lazy to move after the big meal. So I’ll not eat you because I don’t have an appetite right now. I just need a drink of water.” The tiger further said, “I’ll come back to the cage. I swear on my wife and children and my old parents.”
All this sweet talk got Puret Ba to think that providing water to the thirsty is indeed a good deed and will earn him lots of punya.
…to be continued.
Pokharel is an educationist, consultant and author of several children’s books.
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