Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Short story: The king and the gardener

Copyright@shravancharitymission

By Kamlesh Tripathi








    Nausherwan the king of Faras was famous for his judicial acumen. He was a big philanthropist too. One day he set out with his ministers to go around the city to ascertain what all was happening. While going around he saw an old gardener in an orchard busy planting walnut saplings. The king entered the orchard and went up to him. He asked—‘are you a servant here or this is your own orchard?’

    The gardener replied—‘My Lord I don’t serve anymore. This orchard was planted by my forefathers, so it belongs to me.’

    The king said—‘you are planting these walnut saplings. But do you even know it takes twenty years for it to flower and bear fruits. Do you think you’ll live for twenty years to eat the fruits?’

    The gardener heard the king dutifully and then politely said--‘My Lord, till now I had so many fruits from trees planted by others. Now it is my duty to plant trees for others. It will be extremely selfish on my part if I plant trees that only bear fruits for me.’

    The king was extremely happy with the reply the old gardener had given and as a reward he gave him two asharfees (gold coins).

    Moral of the story: One must continuously think of others as others have thought about us.
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