In a small village, there lived a poor farmer who had a few cows. He
and his wife made balls of cheese from the cow’s milk. He carefully weighed each
ball of cheese and made sure that it was 1 kilo. He sold them to a shopkeeper in
the town every weekend.
In exchange for the balls of cheese, he took sugar, oil, spices, soap, and
other necessities from the shopkeeper.
One day, the shopkeeper weighed a ball of cheese that the farmer had
brought. He was shocked to find that it weighed only 900 gm.
He weighed another
one.
It was also 900 gm.
Soon he weighed all the balls and they were all 900 gm
each.
The shopkeeper became red with anger.
When the farmer came to his shop the next weekend, he shouted,
“You cheat! You have been cheating me for years. I do not want to do business with you anymore.”
The poor farmer was puzzled. He looked around to see if the shopkeeper,
who was cross-eyed, was talking to someone else. But there was nobody else at
the shop.
He asked the shopkeeper,
“Sir, did you call me a cheat?”
“Yes, you rascal, do you think you can fool me all my life? I know your vile tricks now. Go away. I do not want to see your face again.”
“Sir, please explain. In what way do you say that I cheated you?” asked the farmer calmly.
“Look at those balls of cheese that you sold to me. You claim that they weigh 1 kg each. What rotten nonsense! Every single one of them weighs only 900 gm.”
The farmer looked at the balls of cheese and then at the shopkeeper.
“Sir, I do not know how that could have happened.”
“Oh, now you feign ignorance, do you? Check your weights at home.”
“What weights, Sir? I am too poor and cannot afford to buy weights. I just put the 1 kg sugar that I purchased from you in one of the weighing scales and measured the cheese in the other.”
On hearing this, the shopkeeper’s face changed colour and he admitted
his own wrongdoing.
From that day onwards, the farmer and the shopkeeper became good
friends and did business honestly.
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| Art: Irene D'Cruz, 75, India |
(Retold)
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