The Lost Bet

One day a vendor came along a village street with a sack of cucumbers. An idler stopped the vendor and began to ask him all sorts of impertinent questions.

The vendor got vexed. “Go away,” he said. “You don’t mean to buy.”

The idler was touched to the quick.

“Ah, you don’t know me,” he said. “Settle the price; I’ll eat a lot of cucumbers.”

“Even if four persons share them with you, you can’t eat them,” said the vendor.

“What will you bet?” the idler challenged.

“If you eat all these cucumbers here,” the vendor said, “I’ll present you with a laddu that won’t pass through a doorway.”

“I’ll bet ten recipes you can’t!” the idler retorted.

“You must eat the cucumbers first, you know,” the vendor reminded him.

“Put the sack down!” the idler said. He took out each cucumber, bit it and threw it away.

“Put the sack down!” the idler said. He took out each cucumber, bit it and threw it.

“No fun at all,” the idler replied. “I ate all the cucumbers !”

“Do you call that eating?” the vendor demanded.

“Try to sell them to anyone,” the idler replied. “You’ll be told that they are all eaten.”

By now, a large crowd had gathered around them. Everyone agreed that the cucumbers were eaten “. The vendor accepted his defeat, picked up his sack, and was about to go away when the idler stopped him and asked him, “How about that laddu you promised me? I made a bet about that too.”

“How do you expect that poor man to produce a laddu that won’t pass through a doorway?” the onlookers said to the idler. “Take a rupee by way of compensation, and let him off.”

“Oh, no!” the idler said. “The bet is ten rupees.”

“Don’t worry,” the vendor said to the idler. “I’ll get you a laddu that won’t pass through a doorway.” He went to a sweets shop and bought an ordinary laddu for a half-anna.

“Is this the laddu that won’t pass through a doorway?” the idler asked.

“Of course it is,” the vendor replied. “Choose any doorway you please. I’ll demonstrate.”

The crowd moved to the nearest doorway. The vendor placed the laddu behind the threshold and said, “Pass!”

“See?” said the vendor triumphantly to the crowd, “it won’t pass through the doorway.”

The idler got wild at this. But the onlookers said, “What the vendor says is correct.”

“So you say!” the idler mumbled and tried to escape. But the vendor stopped him and said, “You have lost the bet, you know. Pay me the ten rupees.”

The idler was made to pay the amount. The vendor lost his cucumbers, but he did make a profitable bargain after all.