Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Short story: TWO PONIES

Copyright@shravancharitymission

By Kamlesh Tripathi







   Once upon a time there was a trader who had two ponies. He often used to load his ponies with grocery, to sell them in the nearby villages located in the hills. Once, it so happened, that one of his pony fell sick, but the trader did not come to know of it. He wanted to carry salt, jaggery, pulses and rice to the nearby villages to sell. So, he loaded both the ponies equally and started off in his mission.



    But while negotiating the uneven hilly terrain the sick pony was having problems. They halted for a breather is when he said to his fellow pony—‘today I’m not feeling well. I’ll drop one of the bags loaded on me, so you keep standing here. When our owner notices that he might load it on you. But if you move ahead the owner will load it back on me. In this manner my load will get reduced and I will be able to come along with you.’

    But the other pony said—‘why should I take your load? As if I have lesser load on my back. Sorry, I’ll only carry my share of load.’

    The sick pony kept quiet. But he was feeling extremely sick. And while moving on the hilly track he inadvertently stumbled into a bolder lying on the road and went off the hill and rolled down and finally succumbed to his injuries.


    The trader was shocked at the sudden death of his pony. He stood there for a while not knowing what to do. Then he lifted the bags from the dead pony and loaded them on to the other pony. Now that pony started repenting and thinking—‘had I listened to my fellow pony and taken some extra load he wouldn’t have come across the fatal accident and in turn I wouldn’t have had to carry the entire load on my back.


    Moral of the story: A person who doesn’t help his colleague in danger has to repent.
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