Fair Shares

Lalita Ajit, 16.03.05

The following is Bengali Folk tale which I would like to share with you all as it in line with His Holiness Baba Hardev Ji's teachings to share and care equally for all human beings.

As Mahatma Gandhi once said: "In this world there is enough for everyone's needs, but not enough for one man's greed".....

There were two old women who lived together. One of them was a clever old woman and the other was a foolish old woman. Their home was a little hut in a village. They were very, very poor. They were cold at night, always hungry and very unhappy.

The other villagers were kind people. They felt sorry for the two old women. They were poor too, but they decided to collect some money for the two old women. Each villager gave a little money until; altogether, they had collected a lot.

The two old women were happy to get this money and they thanked all the villagers.
‘How shall we spend the money?’ asked the foolish old woman. She always took advice from the clever old woman.

The clever old woman knew that the money would not last for long. ‘Let us buy a little piece of land and a cow’ she said. ‘Then we can grow our food on the land and drink the cow’s milk.’ The foolish old woman agreed.

So they bought a little piece of land on which they agreed to grow nice, spinach and sugar cane. They bought a nice cow, too. They still had a little money left, they bought a patchwork quilt. But there wasn’t enough money to buy two.

The clear old woman was selfish and did not want to share any of the good things that they had bought with their money. At the same time she wanted the foolish old woman to work hard looking after the land and the cow. So she thought of a clever plan.

‘We should share everything equally,’ said the clever old woman, ‘so this patchwork quilt will be mine at night. You can have it all day.’ The foolish old woman agreed. ‘Yes, that is very fair.’
‘Half the cow will be mine, but the other half is yours,’ said the clever old woman. ‘You can take the front half and I’ll have the back.’ Again the foolish old woman agreed.

‘We will both work on the land,’ said the clever old woman. ‘What grows above the ground will be mine and what grows below will be yours.’ Again the foolish old woman thought that this was fair.
After a few days the foolish old woman was very hungry, thirsty and tired. In fact she was just as unhappy as she used to be before the kind villagers gave them the money.

Every night the clever old woman would cover her-self with the patchwork quilt and sleep soundly. But the foolish old woman would shiver with cold and stay awake for most of the night. In the morning she would wash and clean the cow. She would feed it with sweet grass and leaves. But it was the clever old woman who milked the cow every day and the foolish old woman never got a drop to drink.

During the day both the old women would work on the land but it was the clever old woman who got to eat the spinach, rice and sugar cane which grew above ground. The foolish old woman would have to dig out the roots.

Since she had no food or money, the foolish old woman went to beg from the other villagers. They were surprised and cross to see her begging. ‘We have already given you and your friend as much money as we could, so go away,’ they said. But a barber was very curious about why she was begging and asked her what they had done with the money. ‘Did you waste all the money we gave you? Or was it stolen from you?’

‘Oh no, we made good use of it’, the foolish old woman said. She told him what they had bought with the money. The barber asked how she and the clever old woman spent their days and nights. The foolish old woman told him everything. The barber felt sorry for her, so he decided to help her. He gave the foolish old woman some food and told her to go home and do exactly as he said.

That night she soaked the patchwork quilt in water before giving it to the clever old woman for the night. Now it was the clever old woman’s turn to shiver all night.

In the morning the foolish old woman didn’t feed or wash the cow. When the clever old woman went to milk the cow, it refused to give her any milk. When she scolded the cow for not giving any milk, it kicked her.

Then she saw that foolish old woman was pulling out the roots of everything growing on their land, even the very young green plants. Soon they had nothing growing on their land and the clever old woman was just as hungry as the foolish old woman. Now she understood that it was wicked not to share things in a fair way. The two old women began to share everything more equally. They became good friends and, because of their hard work, they soon had enough money to buy another patchwork quilt. They lived happily together and both of them kept warm at night.