Long ago, in a distant village thete lived a woodcutter and a carpenter. They were good friends and neighbors as well. The woodcutter lived with his wife and two little children. The carpenter lived with his old parents and used to take care of them. They were hardworking and lived a very happy and a content life.
On a certain day there came a merchant. He came from the neighboring town and brought with him a lot of rare and precious gems and pearls. He used to sell these beautiful ornaments to the women living in the village. He made his living by trading ornaments made of rare gemstones.
As a part of his profession, he also used to spread stories from one village to the other. He used to narrate very interesting tales about his experiences in jungles, in neighboring villages, in far away towns, in the sea, etc. The women of the village who were mostly confined to their own homes loved listening to his stories and use to listen in wrapped attention.
The merchant came to the woodcutters house one day. He said to the woodcutter’s wife, “While coming from the neighboring town to this village I came across a huge treasure in the jungle nearby. There are lots and lots of precious gold and silver coins, rubies, emerald, and pearls lying hidden in the jungle. Which fool said money cannot bring happiness? If one could find it, I’m sure he’ll be richer than the king of this land.”
The woodcutter’s wife thought, “My husband makes hardly a few bucks a day despite toiling really hard all day long. If I could convince my husband to go to the jungle and find the treasure, I could feed my children for the rest of my life without having my husband to work so hard. There’s nothing that money cannot buy.”
As she was friends with the carpenter’s wife, she told her to convince her husband to go to the jungle. They badly wanted the money so that the two families could live happily ever after without having to work so hard and come out of poverty forever. The two wives were convinced that poverty was the sole cause of misery in the lives and getting at least apart the treasure could put an end to all the misery forever. They never knew that money cannot bring happiness.
Being good and dutiful husbands, both the carpenter and the woodcutter were convinced by their wives to go to the forest and find the treasure. They set out in the pursuit and started walking into the woods. The journey was long and tiresome.
After walking for several hours, they found the treasure under a big tree. As they had heard from the merchant, the treasure contained lots of precious gold, silver, rubies, diamonds, emeralds and many other rare and precious stones they’ve never seen before. The woodcutter and the carpenter were delighted beyond bounds. They secured the treasure and wanted to get back to the village soon and liver happy and prosperous life there after.
However both of them where too exhausted to carry the box full of treasure and walk back the entire distance. So the woodcutter suggested, “We are too tired. Why don’t we take a rest under this tree for some time, drink some water from the river near by, relax for a little bit here this night and then walk back tomorrow morning?”
Being very tired, the carpenter readily agreed to this idea. As they refreshed themselves by drinking pure water from the river and rested under the tree imaging a happy and prosperous future that lay in front of them, the woodcutter thought, “If I go back with the carpenter, I will have to divide the treasure and share one half with him. If I kill him, my family alone will get the full share.”
So the woodcutter decided to kill the carpenter. He gave some poisoned water to the carpenter and hoped that he would not see the daybreak the next day. The carpenter drunk it unknowingly.
But coincidentally, the carpenter also had a similar thought in his mind. He thought that if he could get the woodcutter killed overnight, he could enjoy the treasure all by himself. So, after the woodcutter had slept, the carpenter brought a big rock and drop it on the woodcutters head to kill him on the spot.
As he had already drunk poisoned water, the carpenter never woke up the next day. Thus, the two good friends never saw the dawn the following day.
Moral – Money Cannot Bring Happiness
The moral of the story is that money cannot bring happiness. Money instills greed in people. Therefore we should be content with what ever little we have.
The Cowherd 