Patience

If ever there was a man who disliked work, it was Rajan, the peasant. He had two acres of rich, fertile land that produced two good crops every year. But, to be honest, Rajan and work were not good friends.

One morning, Rajan was lazily wandering across his land when a rabbit suddenly scurried out from almost under his feet. The frightened creature was so panicked that it ran headlong into a tree and killed itself.

“This is wonderful,” thought Rajan. “Without any effort, I now have a nice rabbit to eat. There’s no sense in working when all I have to do is wait for rabbits to kill themselves.”

From that day onwards, Rajan was content to sit behind that tree, patiently waiting for the next rabbit to come along and meet the same fate. The days turned into weeks, and the weeks into months, yet no rabbit appeared. Still, Rajan remained quite content to sit and wait.

When harvest time came, all his neighbors were busy gathering their crops, which meant food and money to sustain them for yet another year. Meanwhile, there sat Rajan behind the tree, still hopeful and waiting.

Maybe, even now, he’s still sitting there.