RAMALINGA AND HIS SERVANTS

Many years ago there lived a poet named Ramalinga in Vijayanagar. He was very clever man. Ramalinga had two servants who were rogues.

                Ramalinga’s wife had a lot of jewels. She wore them all day, and at night she put them away in a box in her bedroom.

                One day the two servants saw her putting her jewels in the box. One of them said to the other, “Let us steal the jewels tonight. AT midnight we shall get into the bedroom and take the box away.”

                Ramalinga heard them and told is wife about the servants plan.

                At eleven o’clock that night, the two servants went to the bedroom and peeped in. Ramalinga was not asleep. He was speaking to his wife in a loud voice, saying, “You know, there are thieves in town. We have a lot of gold and jewels in the house. I have a plan. We shall put all the gold and jewels in your box and drop the box into the well in our garden. The thieves won’t know about it. The gold and jewels will be safe at the bottom of the well.”

                The servants heard these words and were very happy. “We can now get the jewels very easily,” they said.

                Ramalinga quickly took out all the gold and jewels from his wife’s box. Then he filled it with stones. “Come and help me,” he said to his wife in a loud voice. “Let’s carry the box to the well.”

                They carried the box out and dropped it into the well.

                The two servants were watching them. They now went to the well and looked in. It was very deep and there was a lot of water in it.

                “Can you get into the well and take the box out?”asked the first servant.

                “No, I cannot,” said the other. “The well is very deep. But I have a plan. Let’s draw all the water in the well and pour it out. We can then get down to the bottom of the well and bring the box out easily.”

                They got two buckets and ropes and began to draw water from the well. They poured the water out and it flowed into the garden.

                It was six o’clock in the morning and they were still drawing water. Then Ramalinga walked up to them. “What are you doing?” he asked.

                They said, “We are drawing water for the trees and plants in the garden.”

                “That’s very good,” Ramalinga said laughing to himself.

                Only he knew how cleverly he had fooled his servants.

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GATHERED FROM MY OLD TEXT BOOK