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Sunday Parable by Sunanda Mahendra

'Where are you going?' asked the children who came looking for the village storyteller.

"I am going to a village called Modapane."

"We haven't heard of such a village. Where on earth is that?"

"That's what I want to know too. So I am in search of that place. But I know something about the wise men living there"

"Please tell us something about them," requested the children.

"Alright I will tell you one story about one of them, so sit and relax all of you."

When the children sat around the storyteller, he started the story.

Story goes

One day, one of these wise men wanted to cross a river in the village of Modapane, with a group of ten donkeys.

Then he counted the donkeys one by one and got on to the back of one of them and started his journey.

In the middle of his journey he looked back and counted the donkeys one by one and found that there was only nine. Then he got down and counted them and found that there were ten once again. This is quite strange, he thought.

"When I started the journey, I had ten. But halfway it looks as if one is missing." Then he started his journey once again. Then he looked back and counted the donkeys to see that there were only nine. There is definitely a devil hiding in the river.

I must not give way to that devil. So he got down from the back of the donkey and crossed the river with the ten donkeys. But once again, he found one missing as he counted, seated on one of the donkeys.

How did it happen? The storyteller asked the children.

"Oh it is simple," a child told the storyteller. "It is because he is mounted on one of the donkeys and counting the rest."

"You are perfectly correct. So this is the first story, I heard about one of the wise men in Modapane," the storyteller said.

"Tell us one more."

The storyteller had to narrate another.

Once a strange wild boar entered the village of Modapane. The wild boar had a hornlike unicorn on its forehead. The Modapane towners informed this to the wise men of Modapane.

"This is indeed a strange animal and we have not seen such a creature in our life," they said.

When the wise men of Modapane came to see the animal, they saw the creature in fear running hither and thither, and in the end it fell into a deep well. Looking down the wisest of men declared. "This cannot be one of our wild boars in Modapane."

Nodding, the second in command said, "Yes, it is certain that this belongs to another village, perhaps the adjoining village."

The villagers nodded their heads and asked, "so what are we going to do about it? Shouldn't we take him out of the well?"

The wisest man said sternly. "No, it is not good to take out an unknown animal from another village who had fallen into our well. Just ask them to come and see, whether it belongs to them."

"But dear great sir," said the villagers, "What are we going to do now? The animal will die soon."

"No it is not going to die so soon, it looks a strange divine animal, so ask them to come and remove the creature immediately."

"How are we going to do that?" asked the villagers.

"It is simple," voiced the wisest in the village.

"Please tell us what we should do?"

"Send a drummer to the adjoining village and say that a wild boar from their side had fallen into one of our wells in Modapane, and ask them to take him out without troubling us." The villagers thanked the wisest man of Modapane for his wisdom.

When the drummer went round with his drum beating and making the announcement, a group of villagers from the adjoining village knew what has actually happened and entered Modapane and took the wild boar from the well.

Too wise

They thanked the Modapane villagers and their wise men and took the animal to a nearby forest and slaughtered it. They had a hearty meal.

The children were not quite happy about the way the story ended. But they came to know what really happened. The group of villagers from the adjoining village who came to remove the wild boar happened to be a pack of good-for-nothing hunters. "Just one more," requested a child, and the story- teller had to narrate this story.

The four wise men of Modapane were walking along a road. Then a certain villager saluted them by removing the scarf worn around his neck.

"That man saluted me, for he knows that I am the wisest here," said the first one. Then said the second, "No, he saluted me."

Disagreeing, with the others, the third one said, "No, he did it to me, because he knows who is the wisest."

The fourth man said. "You all took him wrong. He knows how wise I am."

Then they had a strong argument for a long time about the salutation the villager. This reached a climax when the leader of the wise men said, "The matter can be solved by asking him a simple question as to who he saluted." "Oh that solves the problem." They all agreed and so they approached the man who saluted them and asked the question.

"To whom did you salute?" Knowing well the wisdom of the wise men of Modapane, the man said, "Sir, I saluted the biggest fool out of the lot."

Then they went on arguing as to who the biggest fool out of the lot could be. The argument goes on up till now and I have to go and see them.

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