SAFE DEPOSIT LOCKER
A Mulla Nasrudin Teaching Story
By
VIKRAM KARVE
The other day, during a visit to my bank, I noticed a large number of persons wanting to visit and check their safe deposit lockers and I was reminded of this Mulla Nasrudin story:
Mulla Nasrudin relocated to a new town.
In this town there was a tradition.
People saved their money and with their money they purchased gold coins.
When they had enough gold coins to fill up an earthenware pot, they bought an earthenware pot, filled it with gold coins, sealed it and then they buried the pot full of gold in their gardens in a secret spot.
Once a year, they dug up the vessels from their secret hidden spots, opened the seals, checked their gold coins, resealed the pots and then buried them again at another secret spot in their gardens.
When the Nasrudin learned about this practice, he found an earthenware pot, and in full public view, he filled the pot with stones, dug a hole in the centre of the road and started burying his pot full of stones.
“Nasrudin, that is not the proper way,” said the townsfolk, “You are supposed to fill the pot with gold, not stones.”
“Dear friends,” Nasrudin laughed, “as long as you are not going to spend it, what difference does it make if it is gold or stones...?”
Look around you – don’t you see people accumulating and hoarding things they never use, maybe anything, like money, possessions, paintings, books, clothes, shoes, artefacts, stamps, coins, just about anything, and they take delight in looking at their “museums” once in a while and then putting them away once again.
Now tell me, Dear Reader, what is the moral of this story?
VIKRAM KARVE
I will surely come back for more
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