Fool’s Paradise

Fool’s Paradise

In Bangladesh and India a wise and a learned man is referred as a ‘guru’ meaning master. Such gurus are looked upon with great respect and they usually have several followers also called devotees. They help them spread the virtues of wisdom among people.

            One such guru was traveling with his young follower from one place to another when they came to a land where everything costs the same, for example- a glass of mild costs the same as a pot of chicken curry.

The follower was delighted, ‘we must never leave this place’ he said, ‘this place is like a paradise’. The guru thought hard for a moment and then said, ‘no we cannot stay long in this place where everything costs the same. There is no difference between rich and poor, wise and fool, cheap or costly’. But the follower did not want to leave this place, ‘I am tired of traveling with you and carrying your stuff, I think I will stay here’ he said.

            When the guru failed to convince him, he left but warned him, ‘Pretty soon you will find out why this is a fool’s paradise and then you will be sorry’.

            The follower spent his days going to the bazaar and eating lots of rice, sweets and other rich foods to his heart’s content. Within a few months, he became fat and plump.

            One day in that land, a woman came crying to the king’s palace and complained that her husband who was a thief had fallen from a broken roof and had lost his life. At once the king summoned the owner of the house, who came trembling and said, ‘O king, it’s not my fault, it’s the fault of the mason who built the roof’. Then the king called for the mason. When the guards brought the mason, he fell on the king’s feet and said, ‘your majesty, it’s not my fault, it’s the fault of the laborer who mixed the sand and clay’.

            The king’s men went out to look for the laborer and they brought a thin skinny man before the king. The king looked at the man and said, ‘do you know that because you did not mix the sand and clay properly, the roof was not strong and the thief fell and died’ The laborer nodded. Then the king added, ‘now according to the rules of this land you must pay for the life of the thief by giving up your life’.

            The king ordered his men to put the laborer on top of the ‘soul’ which is a sharp iron rod and was used in those days to punish the guilty. The rod pierces through the body and thus

The person meets his life’s end. But the laborer was thin like a bay leaf and the king’s men complained that he would end up sitting on top of the soul. ‘Then bring a fat, plump man immediately’ shouted the king.

            The king’s men set out to look for a fat man and they brought the follower before the king. The king looked up at the follower and said, ‘you are the right type of person to be put on the soul and so you must pay for the life of the thief that he lost’. A large crowd had gathered around the soul. It so happened that the guru was passing by and seeing a crowd stopped to inquire. He was shocked to see that his follower was being dragged towards the soul. The guru thought of ways to help him escape this scandal.

            Then he ran towards the king shouting, ‘O raja, put me on the soul instead of that man, for today is the holy day and whoever gives up his life today will be born as a king’.

            As soon as the king’s ministers heard this, they rose on their feet and shouted, ‘put me on the soul, put me on the soul’.

There was a loud uproar. Then the king rose on his feet and raised his hand for every body to be quiet. When the crowd silenced, he said in a loud voice, ‘I am the king of this land and every body must listen to me. I was born as a king and I want to be born he stepped towards the soul.

            The guru crept towards the follower, caught hold of his ear and dragged him out of the crowd, ‘this is a fool’s paradise and the faster we get out of here the better’ he said.

The Silly Crocodile

A clever fox decided to set up a nursery school for the baby animals of the jungle and so one day he put on a pair of looking glass, hung a sign board and sat beside a stream waiting for his students. A crocodile had seven kids and she wanted her kids to be able to read and write and so she spoke with cunning fox. ‘Very well’ answered the fox thorough his glasses, ‘but you have to leave them with me’. 

           

The following day, the mother crocodile brought her seven kids and left them in the fox’s den. The fox gathered the kids in a secluded corner and said, ‘I am your master and every body must listen to me’. Then he took one kid near him and said, ‘everybody repeat with me, urugud, burugud, baby crocodile tastes good’ so saying he ate that crocodile. Now there were six crocodiles left. That evening when the mother crocodile came to see her kids, the fox stood in front of the hole, took out one baby crocodile and counter ‘one’. Then he put it back, took out another one and counted ‘one’. Then he put it back, took out another one and counted ‘two’. Thus he counted five crocodiles. The sixth crocodile, he counted it twice, making it appear that there are seven crocodiles. As all the baby crocodiles looked the same, the mother could not figure out the missing one.

            The next day, too, the fox took the kids inside the hole and ate another crocodile, leaving only five. That night, when the mother crocodile came, the fox as before, stood in front of her hole and counted the fifth crocodile three times, again making it appear that there are seven kids. After eating the last crocodile, the fox left her hole and went away. That night, when the mother crocodile could not find anyone, she entered the hole and found it littered with bones. She vowed to punish the fox and teach him a lesson.

            After days of searching, the crocodile found the place where the fox was hiding; it was near a brook and the fox often came to the brook to drink water. So the crocodile hid under the marshy water and water for the fox. Around noon time, the fox stepped into the water, the crocodile moved fast and grabbed his leg. Sensing the danger, the fox said, ‘hey friend, what are you doing? don’t you know I can’t see very well these days, so I carry my stick with me, now if you only let it go, I can get up’.

   

The crocodile quickly let the leg go in order to catch the leg, when whosssh! the fox jumped out of the water and ran away. Once more the crocodile was fooled by the fox, but still she did not give up.

            The crocodile found out that the fox visits the sea shore often accompanied by his wife and thought of a novel way to catch the fox pair. Then on e day, she lay down on the sand motionless, eyes closed as if appearing dead. The fox and his wife came to the shore and seeing the crocodile lying on the sand without even moving, the fox halted at a distant and said, ‘wife, I wonder whether this crocodile is alive or dear, for a dead crocodile always wags it’s tail, and this one is not’ The crocodile did not want to be fooled and so as soon as she heard this, she started to wag her tail. Seeing this, the fox laughed aloud, ‘see, I knew she was just pretending’ and then they left for another place. But the crocodile never gave up chasing the fox and even to this day foxes do not go to drink water, where crocodiles are present.

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