Sunday, March 26, 2006

A Wonderful Tale

Not too long a time ago, there lived a benevolent king in a technocratic kingdom not too far away from here. He loved his country and his people, but also always checked whether his actions befitted the objects of his affection.

One night, he has a violent dream. He sees strong killing weak, rich looting poor, and youth despoiling the religious idols and revelling drunkenly. He wakes up with a sweaty chest and palms. He keeps wondering how good his citizens are, and could not go back to sleep.

During breakfast, he calls up Mahamantry and says that he wants to test people how good and honest they really are.

Mahamantry thinks for a bit and asks the King to leave it up to him. He proceeds to build a temple with a magnificient golden Gajur weighing a ton. Then he fits a Sony video camera with an amazing resolution, trained at Gajur, so that the thief will be captured on film.

The next day King awakens to a lot of hue and cry. The Gajur is gone!

Upon calling, Mahamantry takes a deep bow to King and says apologetically that it was done at night so the camera could not capture the perpretator. With deep remorse that people have indeed gone bad and that the idea did not quite work out, King orders that Mahamantry be beheaded.

With uncontrollable shakes, Mahamantry asks for a last chance. King says ok, but Mahamantry will have to buy another Gajur out of his pocket, and if he failed this time also, he will not be beheaded but Pickled. Not trying to dwell on the fix he is in, Mahamantry takes out all his life savings from the bank to buy and install the exact replica of another Gajur, and ruminates for the rest of the day.

That evening, he replaces the camera with equally powerful resolution, but this time with a clear night vision as well.

The next day, even before it morned, the King, in his underwear, runs to the temple... Gasping, he looks for the Gajur. With a stunning revelation, he sees that the not only the second Gajur was still intact, but also the original Gajur was brought back and placed next to the temple!

He orders for Mahamantry, who comes beaming all over and effusive that the citizens are not that bad at all. The King becomes so happy that he orders that a beautiful temple be made from the two ton of gold from the Gajurs at Mahamantry's residence.

All this while, nobody notices the Sony camera is gone...

Learning points:
1. Don't jump to conclusions
2. Now you know why there are so many temples in Nepal.
3. Some objects are worth more than gold.

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