Greedy Gatekeeper

Once there lived a very rich man in a town. The rich man's big bungalow was guarded by a lazy and greedy gatekeeper. One day a poor man from a near by village came to the rich man's bungalow.

The gatekeeper asked why did the old man come there. The old man replied, "I have brought some rare fruits from my village. I want to sell them to your master." The gatekeeper asked the old man to give him one fruit. After eating that fruit, the gatekeeper knew that the his boss will buy all those tasty fruits.

"Ok, I will let you in, but you should give me half of what my boss gives for these fruits", said the gatekeeper. The old man decided to teach a good lesson to the gatekeeper. So, he agreed to his condition and went inside the gate to meet the rich man.

The rich man liked the fruits and said he would buy all the fruits. When he asked about what amount of money the old man wanted for those fruits, the old man replied, "instead of money please give 100 lashes on my back."

The rich man was surprised. Since, the old man insisted on the same again and again, the rich man asked his servants to give 100 lashes on the old man's back. Just when the servants were about to start, the old man said, "Sir, I have another partner in the business who will take half of what he gets for the fruits. So please give the first fifty lashes to him."

The rich man asked who was that partner. The old man told him about the gatekeeper and his condition. The rich man understood what had happened. He called the gatekeeper and punished him with fifty lashes as he wanted.

The rich man then gave some good amount of money to the old man for those fruits and thanked him.

MORAL: Greediness leads to pain some way or the other.

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