The Washerman and the Lazy Bull

Once upon a time, there lived a washerman called Ravidas. Ravidas lived in a small village.  Everyday, he would go from house to house and collect the clothes to be washed. He put the clothes in a cart he brought along. The cart was drawn by a bull.

He then made his way to the banks of the river which flowed near the village.  He washed the clothes in the waters of the river. In the evening, he went and handed the clothes to their owners.

Ravidas was a kind man and took good care of his bull.  The bull was fed well.  He had a clean and spacious shed to stay.

But, the bull was a lazy and thankless animal.  He always felt a false sense of importance and thought of work as a burden.  He hated carrying the load.  He wanted to lounge in his shed all day and while away the time.  One day, a wicked idea crossed the bull’s mind.

The next day, Ravidas went about his daily routine.  He collected the clothes from the villagers,  went down to the river and washed the clothes.  In the evening, he was returning to the village.

The wicked bull was waiting to put his plan into action.  A short distance from the river bank was a small canal.  The canal carried muddy water from the village.  The canal was just a few inches deep.  Every day, Ravidas would drive through the canal.  The wheels of the bullock cart were tall enough to pass through the water.  The cunning bull pretended to stumble while crossing the canal.  As the bull buckled, the cart tilted to one side.  The washed clothes on the cart slid across and fell into the muddy water.

Ravidas was shocked.  He jumped from the cart and picked up the clothes from the canal.  They were soiled in the muddy water.

Ravidas was distraught.  “What will I tell the villagers?”, he asked himself, “How will they trust me again with their clothes?”.  It was late in the evening and everyone would be waiting for their clothes.  He thought of his reputation and how it would be damaged.

He quickly collected the clothes and drove the cart home.  He told the villagers that he was unwell and that he would return the clothes the next afternoon.  The next morning, he hurriedly went to the river and washed the clothes again.  It was a difficult job.  The stains were difficult to remove.  After a lot of scrubbing , Ravidas finally managed to remove the stains.  He then dried them and returned them to the owners that evening.

The bull was happy.  “Now, the master will not ask me to work any more”, he told himself.

Ravidas saw through the bull’s plan. He knew that the bull stumbled intentionally.  “I will teach him a lesson”, he told himself.

The next day, he went to the shed where the bull was kept and fed him as usual.  His wife, Ragini, was also with him.  She helped in cleaning the shed.  “Ragini”, he said, “I think our bull is getting old and weak. He stumbled the other day while crossing the canal”.  The bull was keenly listening to Ravidas.  Ravidas was aware of this.  He continued, “I think he can no longer work.  If this happens again, we will have to send him to the slaughterhouse where he can be used for meat.  We will buy another bull.”

The bull was shocked on hearing this.  He was going to be killed.  He cursed himself for the trick which had backfired. Fear and dread seized him as he thought of the butcher’s knife in his throat.  He felt angry at himself on how he had thrown away his life on a silly plan. 

He began to feel remorseful.    “Here, I get the best of food and a place to stay”, he thought to himself, “and I have chosen to deceive master and to harm his business.” He could barely sleep that night.  “I will work harder from tomorrow”, he told himself, “maybe, then,  master will spare me”.

The next day, he dutifully carried Ravidas and the clothes to the river and back.  He worked harder than usual.  Ravidas noticed the change in the bull.  He knew that his plan had worked.

 Children, this story teaches us to be sincere to others and to work with dedication.   All of us have a role to play in society and we should do our duty wholeheartedly and to the best of our ability.

It also teaches us to be thankful to those who take care of us.  We should be appreciative of them and never let them down.

The Lazy Dhobi and his Donkey

Once upon a time there lived a dhobi (washerman) in a small village.  There were nearly a hundred houses in the village.   The dhobi had to collect dirty clothes from the houses.  He had to wash them in the river.  He would then press them and deliver them back to the houses.  The dhobi had a donkey to help him carry the clothes.

The dhobi was lazy.  He did not wash the clothes regularly.  He would often not go to work.  Therefore, he did not get sufficient money.  Thus, he was very poor.  Because of his poverty, he could not give good food to the donkey.  The donkey had become weak and thin.    But he loved the donkey very much.  He wished to give good food to the donkey.

One day when the donkey was carrying the washed clothes, it became sick and could not walk.  Unable to move further, the famished animal lay down on the road with the bundle in its back.  The dhobi was much worried.  He decided that he had to find a means to feed the donkey.

One day while he was going into the forest along with his donkey, he saw a tiger lying under a shade.  He was terribly afraid.  He stood still there for sometime frozen in fear.  Soon, he realized that there was no movement in the tiger.  He walked slowly and went near the tiger.  To his relief, he found that the tiger was dead.

The dead tiger was very beautiful.  A new idea came to him to feed his donkey for free.  The dhobi removed the tiger’s skin carefully.  He returned home.

The next evening he took the tiger’s skin.  He put it on the donkey and covered the donkey completely.  From a distance, the donkey would look exactly like a tiger.  “No one would dare disturb a tiger in the field”, he thought.  In the darkness, he took the donkey to a field outside the village and sent it inside.

The donkey was very happy.  It had plenty of food.  It ate to its heart’s content and returned home early in the morning.  The dhobi removed the tiger’s skin and master and donkey went about their daily business of collecting clothes for washing.  The dhobi was very happy to see that his donkey could get good food.  The dhobi congratulated himself for being so clever.

The next morning when the owner of the field woke up, he was shocked to see his crop destroyed.  The next night, the donkey went to the neighbouring field and feasted again on the crops there.   The next morning, the owner was also stunned to see his crops destroyed.  This was repeated in other fields of the locality.

The farmers were in a state of despair.  Their crops were being destroyed.  They would suffer great loss at the time of harvest and would be ruined if this unknown animal continued to devour their precious crops.  They decided to put an end to this menace.

The next night, the farmers banded together and lay in wait around the fields.  They were determined to catch the animal which was causing this havoc.

In the moonlight, the farmers could see a creature moving about in the field.  The farmers moved closer to pounce on it and beat it so severely that it would never again enter their fields.  As they went closer, a shiver ran through their spines.  What they saw in front was a “tiger”.  They ran back to their home as fast as their legs could carry them.  The donkey happily unaware of the fright it had given to the farmer gorged on the crops.

This continued for some more days, every night the farmers would helplessly watch the “tiger” in the field.  They felt it strange that a tiger would devour plants but were too scared to go near and investigate.  In the meanwhile, the donkey had grown plump.  The dhobi was happy at how clever he had been.  He had solved the problem of feeding the donkey.

A few days later, the farmers were again watching helplessly as the donkey was grazing at their fields.  The donkey too was happy eating.  Suddenly, he heard a braying sound.  It was a sound made by a she-donkey.  The donkey was excited and started braying in joy.  The farmers soon found out that they had been fooled all along.  Furious at their loss and the deception, the set upon the donkey and beat it with sticks.  They then looked closely and found that the donkey was the dhobi’s.
They now understood the trick played by the dhobi.  The next day they found him in his house, beat him black and blue and drove him out of the village.  The dhobi had lost his livelihood and walked with his donkey away from the village in sadness.

Children, this story teaches us not to be lazy.  A Lazy mind is the devil’s workshop.  A lazy mind thinks of wrong things as it does not want to work hard.  Trying to get something the wrong way will bring us disgrace and loss in the long run.