A Stinging Remedy

Many years ago, there lived in a small village in the heart of India, a great scholar named Gowri Shankar. He loved the village where his father and grandfather had lived and was well-respected, both for his wisdom and his readiness to help others in times of distress.

A close neighbor was Manilal, who was quite affluent, but money meant everything to Manilal, and some of his methods to acquire more were extremely dubious. Yet the scholar and Manilal were good friends, and Gowri Shankar always cherished the hope that one day his friend would mend his ways.

That year, in a nearby town, the wedding was celebrated of a rich man’s son, and as Gowri Shankar had been the youth’s tutor, he was invited to the wedding as a guest of honor. The rich man, in a grateful frame of mind, presented the scholar with a silk shawl and a costly diamond ring.

Everyone in the village was delighted when they saw the scholar’s gifts, except Manilal, who looked at the ring with greedy eyes, thinking, “Why should a scholar who scorns riches possess such a ring when it would look so good on my hand?” Sitting in Gowri Shankar’s house that evening, Manilal could think of nothing but that sparkling ring. He watched every movement as the scholar picked up the ring and put it in a small box on a shelf.

When they said goodnight, Manilal could not resist taking a backward glance at that box and wended his way home filled with evil thoughts.

In the middle of the night, when all the village was wrapped in slumber, Manilal stole cautiously along the street. When he reached the scholar’s house, he looked around to make sure he was not observed. Knowing that his friend never bolted his door, Manilal quietly lifted the latch and, peering in the door, could just make out the figure of the scholar safe in bed asleep. Without a sound, Manilal tiptoed across the room and gently lifted the box off the shelf. Opening the box, Manilal felt the ring. Suddenly, he dropped the box and let out a great howl, “Help! Help!” he shouted. “I have been bitten by a snake. I am dying.”

The scholar, who had been feigning sleep, sat up and smiled at Manilal, who was hopping around holding his hand and screaming blue murder.

“You are not badly hurt,” he said to Manilal. “It was only a scorpion I caught last night. But tell me, what are you doing here, and why are you taking that box?”

Manilal, now looking very crestfallen, had to confess that he intended to steal the diamond ring. The scholar said, “I knew you planned to steal the ring, that is why I put the scorpion in the box. You have earned a good lesson, my friend.”

From then onwards, Manilal changed in character. He no longer had an insatiable greed for money and found greater enjoyment in the company of his friend, the scholar.