This is a story about two friends who were lived together in a small village. There name were Dharmabuddhi (Right – mind) and Papabuddhi (Wrong- Mind).  Papabuddhi was an evil person and he also lacked the knowledge to how to earn his livelihood.

One day Papabuddhi thought to himself that he was a poor person and he did not know how to earn money. He thought if he will take the Dharmabuddhi to another town he will use his abilities to earn money for himself. After that if he takes away all the earnings earn by Dharmabuddhi then all the money belongs to him then he lived a happy life after that. So he made a plan.

After few days he met the Dharmabuddhi and said to him, “Oh my dear friend, I want to tell you something. We need to earn money for our future needs when we grow old, when we unable to earn money. So we will travel to some other town to earn much money. And if we will go for far off city we will have some stories to our children and grand children.”

Dharmabuddhi did not understand his motive behind this plan and agreed to him. They took the blessings of their parents and elders to travel to a distant town. After few days on a lucky day they started their journey.

They reached a distant town. They spread their business and earn a lot of money due to the skills, knowledge and abilities of Dharmabuddhi. After many days when they earn sufficient money, they decided to return to their home town. So they start their journey to their home. When they reached their village Papabuddhi said to Dharmabuddhi, “Dear, we earn a lot of money but it is not safe to take away all the money together to home. Our friends and relatives may request us for money and there is also a danger of theft.” He continued his plan, “We should hide our money at a safe place where nobody steal it. We keep some of money with our self for our needs. Whenever we need the money, we can together come to that place ant take away our money.”

As the Dharmabuddhi did not know the intentions of him behind this plan he agreed to him. They went to a jungle and buried most of the money under a tree and returned to their home with some of the money.

After few days Papabuddhi, the wrong minded person as he was, he decided to steal the money. So he went to the jungle alone in the night at the place where they hide the money under the tree. He dug out the pit and uncovered all the money. He closed the pit as before and returned home with all the money, and hid this money at some other place.

Days passes away and one day Papabuddhi went to the meet the Dharmabuddhi and pretending that nothing has happened. He said to Dharmabuddhi, “Dear, as I have a huge family the money which I have taken had been spent completely. So we should go together to the place where we hid the money to taken out some of the money.”

 

 

Dharmabuddhi agreed to him, they together reached the place they had buried their all the money in the jungle. They dug out the pit but there was no money there as the Papabuddhi already taken out the money before. Papabuddhi start pretending and started beating his head, shouted loudly on the Dharmabuddhi, “It is you who steal all the money. As nobody knew about this secret place that we hide the money here.  If you do not return me half of the money, I shall complain to the village elders for justice.” After listening this Dharmabuddhi get shocked and said, “What are you telling? I have not done such type of theft. Why are you blaming me for all this? I am a righteous man.”

Within few minutes they started quarrelling and reached the village elders for justice. The village elders asked them to promise in front of the Fire – God to reveal the truth.

Listening this Papabuddhi said that, “First we can request the soul of the tree to stand as a witness. Because it’s all happened in front of the tree where we buried all the money. It’s become easy for us to know the truth that who the thief is. After that we promise before the Fire- God.” The village elders were agreed and said, "We all go the jungle together, and request the soul of the tree to reveal the truth to us. If it’s fail then we will take promise in front of the Fire- God.”

Then Papabuddhi thought, “I might be getting caught for stealing the money.” So he immediately went to his home to his father and said, “I have stolen the money from Dharmabuddhi which we earn together. And we take this matter to the village elders. Now I feared to might be caught. Please help me, your help will save me from the punishment and we put the blame on Dharmabuddhi. If you do not help me I am not only lose the money but may also lose my life for stealing the money.”

His father agreed to help him and said, “Son, what should I do to help you to save you from all this.” Papabuddhi explained his plan to him, “we hide the money under the big tree so there is a big hole there now. You have to go inside the hollow before we all of us reached there. Then when we all reached there to request the soul of the tree to reveal the truth, you should take the name of Dharmabuddhi as a real thief. After that I can handle rest of the matter.”

As decided, his father went to the jungle and hid himself in the hollow near the tree. In the morning the Papabuddhi and Dharmabuddhi reached tree in the jungle with village elders where they buried the money. Immediately Papabuddhi started asking the spirit of the tree in a loud voice, “O spirit of the tree, please tell us who the real thief is, we steal the money from here. We all came here to seek the truth.”

As according to the plan Papabuddhi’s father replied from inside the hollow of the tree, “listen carefully, you all came here to reveal the truth. The truth is that Dharmabuddhi is the real culprit, he stolen all the money.”

The village elders were get stunned after listening this. They could not deny now because the spirit of the tree had indeed revealed the truth. Then they all immediately started discussing that how they should punish Dharmabuddhi for his crime.

 

When Dharmabuddhi heard this, he became sure that there was something wrong here. The spirit of the tree if it was so, is telling the untruth. How it can be possible. To know the truth he put a heap of dried leaves and grass at the hollow of tree and then set fire to it. When the fire started burning up, Papabuddhi’s father could not bear the heat inside the hollow any longer. He suddenly came out the hollow and crying for help.

The village elders were surprised to seeing him coming out from the hollow of the tree. The head asked him, “What were you doing here? And what has happened to you?  Papabuddhi’s father immediately confessed his mistake and revealed all the truth what his son had done.

The village elders now came to know the truth and they decided to punish Papabuddhi for his crime to theft, blaming Dharmabuddhi and misleading them. They decided to hang Papabuddhi on the same tree and appreciated Dharmabuddhi for his intelligence.

The wise indeed say:

 Avoid the company of the evil one or you will pay a heavy price for it.

 

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