Saturday, November 14, 2009

The Parables of 3 Beggars

There was a good-natured millionaire in the town.

Three beggars thought of approaching him for help.

The first man went to the millionaire and said: "O Lord! I want five rupees. Please give me."

The millionaire was taken aback at this man's impudence. "What! You demand five rupees from me as though I owe you the money! How dare you? How can I afford to give five rupees to a single beggar? Here, take these two rupees and get away," he said.

The man went away with the two rupees.

The next beggar went to the millionaire and said: "Oh Lord! I have not taken a square meal for the past ten days. Please help me."

"How much do you want?" asked the millionaire.

"Whatever you give me, Maharaj," replied the beggar.

"Here, take this ten rupee note. You can have nice food for at least three days." The beggar walked away with the ten rupee note.

The third beggar came. "Oh Lord, I have heard about your noble qualities. Therefore, I have come to see you. Men of such charitable disposition are verily the manifestations of God on earth," he said.

"Please sit down," said the millionaire. "You appear to be tired. Please take this food," he said, and offered food to the beggar.

"Now please tell me what I can do for you."

"Oh Lord," replied the beggar; "I merely came to meet such a noble personage that you are. You have given me this rich food already. What more need I get from you? You have already shown extraordinary kindness towards me. May God bless you!"

But the millionaire, struck by the beggar's spirit, begged of the beggar to remain with him, built a decent house for him in his own compound, and looked after him for the rest of his life.

Humanity have three are three classes of beggars, with three different desires. There is the greedy man full of vanity, full of arrogance, full of desires. He demands the objects of enjoyment.

The first is the greedy man full of vanity, full of arrogance, full of desires. He demands the objects of enjoyment. He was granted the desired object but would soon have to beg again.

The second class asked for relief from the sufferings. To him he was granted much more relief.

The third type merely prays to the Lord. The Lord is highly pleased with his spirit of renunciation, of his lack of desire. Therefore, he was granted over and above the others.

***

12 comments:

moo_t said...

A farmer see a rabbit run out from the forest and hit a tree and die. So he thanks and pray to the god for the easy food. From there's on , he just sit there and wait for next rabbit hit the tree.

Jefus said...

TWO WOLVES

One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people.
He said, "My son, the battle is between two wolves inside us all.

"One is Evil - It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

"The other is Good - It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith."

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: "Which wolf wins?"

The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."

sinkeh said...

The Greedy Dog

Once there lived a dog. He was very greedy. There were many times that he had to pay for his greed. Each time the dog promised himself, “I have learnt my lesson. Now I will never be greedy again.” But he soon forgot his promises and was as greedy as ever.

One afternoon, the dog was terribly hungry. He decided to go look for something to eat. Just outside his house, there was a bridge. “I will go and look for food on the other side of the bridge. The food there is definitely better,” he thought to himself.

He walked across the wooden bridge and started sniffing around for food. Suddenly, he spotted a bone lying at a distance. “Ah, I am in luck. This looks a delicious bone,” he said.

Without wasting any time, the hungry dog picked up the bone and was just about to eat it, when he thought, “Somebody might see here with this bone and then I will have to share it with them. So, I had better go home and eat it.” Holding the bone in his mouth, he ran towards his house.

While crossing the wooden bridge, the dog looked down into the river. There he saw his own reflection. The foolish dog mistook it for another dog. “There is another dog in the water with bone in its mouth,” he thought. Greedy, as he was, he thought, “How nice it would be to snatch that piece of bone as well. Then, I will have two bones.”

So, the greedy dog looked at his reflection and growled. The reflection growled back, too. This made the dog angry. He looked down at his reflection and barked, “Woof! Woof!” As he opened his mouth, the bone in his mouth fell into the river. It was only when the water splashed that the greedy dog realized that what he had seen was nothing but his own reflections and not another dog. But it was too late. He had lost the piece of bone because of his greed. Now he had to go hungry.

bayi said...

An old man who lived in a small side street in the city of Mumbai had to put up with the nuisance of having boys play cricket outside his house, at night.

One evening when the boys were particularly noisy, he went out to talk to them.

He explained that he was a pensioner who was happiest when he could see or hear boys playing his favorite game, cricket. He said he would give them 25 rupees each week to play in the street at night.

The boys were thrilled.

They were being paid to do something they enjoyed.

At the end of the first week they knocked at the old man's house and asked to be paid.

He did so.

The second week when they asked for payment he said he had run out of money and sent them away with only 15 rupees.

The third week the man said he had not yet received his pension and gave them only 10 rupees.

The boys were very disappointed but there was not much they could do about it.

The fourth week the man said he could not afford to pay them 25 rupees as he had promised, but would give them 5 rupees each week without fail.

This was too much for the boys.

"You expect us to play seven days a week for a measly 5 rupees!" they yelled. "Go to blazes."

They stormed away and never played on the street again.

Carpet Man said...

All the three beggars had needs. It's important they knew how to sell their needs to the rich man.

A monkey-trainer in the state of Song was fond of monkeys and kept several of them in his house. He understood their language and they understood his.

Once when the province was stricken by drought and food was scarce he decided to reduce their daily ration of chestnuts.

He said to them: "From tomorrow, I'll give you three chestnuts in the morning and four in the evening. You will have to be satisfied with that."

The monkeys were very angry and created an uproar with their chattering.

"All right, all right," said the master, after a while.

"No need to get so upset. I'll give you four chestnuts in the morning and three in the evening."

The monkeys were satisfied and immediately quietened down.

Half Hungry said...

When Niloy was born, his father had a dream in which Bidhata, the god who writes the destinies of men, appeared to him.

"Your son," said the god "will never be able to fully satisfy his hunger. Train him to be satisfied with a minimum of food."

His father tried but Niloy never succeeded in overcoming his love for food, and when he couldn't get enough of it, it made him miserable. The years passed. Niloy married and raised a family, but poverty dogged his footsteps, and there was not a day when he could say he had had enough to eat. He always went to bed half hungry. One day he was invited to the wedding of a rich man's daughter. It made him feel that perhaps his luck had changed.

"There will certainly be a lot of food at the wedding," he thought. "I'll eat to my heart's content."

There was certainly a lot of food at the wedding, but when he had eaten just a little, a heavy decorative piece under which he was sitting, fell on him, rendering him unconscious. When he had recovered, all the food was over.He always went to bed half hungry. His host, wanting to make up for the distress caused to him, invited him to lunch the next day. When he presented himself at the house the next afternoon, his host instructed his servants to take good care of him and to see that he was well fed and he went out of his half hungry condition.

Bidhata, god of destinies, was alarmed when he saw the servants piling food on the banana leaf from which Niloy was eating. He quickly took the form of a tiny frog and hopped onto the leaf, hoping that Niloy would be so filled with disgust that he would lose his appetite. What the god did not know was that his victim was extremely short-sighted. Niloy scooped up the frog along with a ball of rice and swallowed it. The god was trapped. His only consolation was that Niloy had begun to feel uneasy after swallowing him and had stopped eating.

Bidhata called out to Niloy while he was returning home and explained his predicament.

"Spit me out," he entreated.

"Spit you out!" exclaimed the man when he had got over the shock of hearing a voice from his stomach and that too of a god. “You have troubled me all my life. Do you think I will let you go so easily?"

"My duty is to write the destinies of men," said the god. “I derive no pleasure from their tribulations."

"Be that as it may," said Niloy. "I will not let you go until you promise to end my state of perpetual hunger."

"I cannot alter anyone's destiny," said Bidhata, "but if you become my devotee and worship me in an appropriate manner you will have my blessings."

"One can achieve great things with divine blessings," thought Niloy. He forced himself to bring up the food he had eaten, and the frog came out in the process. As Bidhata assumed his true form, Niloy said to him: "Now tell me, what is the appropriate way to worship you?"

"In your case," replied Bidhata, "the only way you can worship me is by never fully satisfying your hunger. Remain hungry all the time."

Maverick SM said...

Dear friends,

I really enjoyed all the stories above.

Thanks to all of you.

I hope more readers would also share their stories here.

Anonymous said...

half-hungry !? isn't it better than
'half-full' ??????

Half Full :) said...

Anon 16.11 2:29 am

1. Bidhata (in the story) had never attended positive thinking classes. He didn't need them you see, because he was a god.

2. It would have changed the essence of the story.

3. Who are we to question the gods?
:)

Anyway, thanks for your posotive input. I am just joking.

Half-full it should be!

Thank you for pointing out this posibility.

Anonymous said...

malaysia is a beautiful superb country to live and raise big family only if the DUMNO members and leaders afraid of GOD and praise the GOD for their lives successes. instead these DUMNO think themselves are GOD and ruined this beautiful nation into Somalia.

may the bomber and porky fat fit rot worst than all the three beggars.

ooorrrr-miiii-thorrr-fhatttt....

Anonymous said...

full-hungry is really bad ;
half-hungry is ok la !

Anonymous said...

How hungry are the Hungarians !?