Funday Times

Uncle Len continues the Jathaka stories
Danger from foolish friends
The village Kasi in ancient India had many carpenters . Almost every house had a carpentry shop. Even children learnt the art of carpentry while still young. So the village was famous for furniture all over India, and even outside for its lasting and well crafted items made of wood. Traders from outside India visited the village in search of good furniture.

There lived in that village an old carpenter. He had a son, who helped his father in his carpentry shop. The father loved the son and he too in turn loved the father. He was however a silly fellow and had no intelligence even to tackle a tiny problem. One day as he watched the father working hard, he noticed a mosquito hovering around and disturbing the father. The old man tried many times to get rid of the insect, but was not successful.

Once he called the son and asked him to chase the insect away, as he was a nuisance. The son tried many a time to get rid of the mosquito but each time it was chased it came back and disturbed the carpenter. The silly son could not put up with it any longer this nuisance and thought of a plan.

The son saw an axe that was in the carpentry shop, and thought it could help him to get the insect killed. He brought the axe and dealt a hard blow once the mosquito settled on the old man’s bald head. The carpenter with a loud shout fell down in agony and blood was all over the shop. When the neighbours heard the old man’s cry and came to the shop, they saw the old carpenter dead in a pool of blood. They did not realize what had taken place.

Just then a wise trader happened to come to the carpentry shop to buy some furniture. Seeing the old man and learning from the son what had taken place, he told the people who had gathered that this is the result of having silly fellows around. The moral of this tale is to beware of the danger from foolish friends.
By Lenard R. Mahaarachchi

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