The Tale of the Iron Balance

            Once there was a merchant who owned an iron balance. He was going out of town for a month so he asked another merchant to save the iron balance for him. So when he came back the other merchant said the balance had been eaten by rats. The first merchant knew this was impossible, so he asked the other merchant," May I take your son to accompany me in the cave?"
             "Sure."
             He took the other merchant's son to the cave and trapped the son inside. The merchant came back and claimed that the son was kidnapped by a bird. The merchant knew he was lying.
             So they went to Buddha for justice.
             " He stole my son!"
             "Well if rats can eat up an iron balance then why can't a bird pick up a kid?"
             Then the good merchant explained the story and both got there things back.

The Brahmin and the Crab

            One day a brahmin had to do some work in another city. His mother asked him about who will be accompanying him. The brahmin replie," Nobody."
"Take this crab with you," said the mother.
"Um, okay," said the brahmin.
He kept the crab in a box. As he was walking in the forest to the other city he found a banyan tree to rest under. So he slept. Then a snake came along and the crab jumped out of the box and killed the snake. When the brahmin woke up he saw the killed snake.



Moral: Always listen to your elders.

The Gold Coins

One day, a rich man that lived in a rich village buried gold coins from robbers. A few years later the village no longer rich. A farmer once was plowing a field and found the gold coins which were the rich man's. He tried to take the coins all at once to his house but they were to heavy so he took them in four equal parts. The first part will be used as an ordinary living, the second part he would use for the winter, the third to open up a shop, and the fourth to donate to poor people.

The Stupid Monkey

          Once there was a businessman that lived in India who was hiring workers to build a temple outside of the city. One day one of the workers left a big nail in between the half sawn plank to keep the two parts seperate. Then every worker went for a lunch break. Afterwords some monkeys came. One of them came and tried to take the nail out. The foolish monkey did not know that his hand was in between the two parts of the plank. As he pulled the nail out his hand was crushed by the two parts and the monkey died.

The Scholar's Question

          Once there was a scholar who was jealous of wise Birbal, the minister of King Akbar. The scholar came to the palace to embarress Birbal.
          "Would you answer one hundred easy questions or one hard quetion?" the scholar asked.
          "One difficult question," Birbal answered.
          "Ok then, what came first the chicken or the egg?"
          " The chicken," Birbal replied.
          " Why?" The scholar had a grin on his face.
          "You have agreed to ask one question, and you have asked it."
         The scholar was speechless.