FOUR FOOLISH

BRAHMINS
In a certain town, there lived four
Brahmins who had become great
friends. They decided to go to
Kannauj to pursue their higher
studies under the guidance of a
learned guru. They took great pains
to acquire knowledge but
unfortunately, neither did they have
logical thinking, nor could they
understand the real deep meaning of
the ancient sayings.
In due course of time they completed
their studies and decided to venture
out in the world. They sought
permission from their guru to go back
to their homes. Their guru happily

granted them his consent and

advised them to consult the holy
book, if they ever had a problem. The
Brahmins touched the feet of their
guru and left from there.
After they had been travelling for a
short time, they came to a place
where two paths met.
They could not decide as to which
road they should take. Just then, they
saw a funeral procession of a rich
merchant. Many prominent citizens of
the nearby town were going in that
procession.
One of the Brahmins consulted his
holy scriptures and read: Whichever
road is followed by great men is the
right one to follow. The Brahmins
then equated the prominent citizens

with great men, and decided to follow

the funeral procession. Soon they
reached the cremation ground, where
while the other people started getting
busy in cremating the body, the
Brahmins did not know what to do
next. They started idling around the
cremation ground. Soon, everybody
left for their homes, and only a
donkey was left standing alone in the
cremation ground.
Now the second Brahmin consulted
his holy scriptures and read:
Whosoever stands by you on all
occasions, whether joyous or sad, is
your true friend. So they came to the
conclusion that the donkey was their
true friend. And then, the Brahmins
started showering their love and

affection on the donkey. Meanwhile,

they saw a camel marching quickly
towards them. Since they had never
seen a camel, they started to wonder
what kind of an animal or deity it was.
The third Brahmin opened his holy
book and read out: Dharma moves
very fast. He then said, This thing is
also moving very fast. It must be
Dharma. Then, they thought that
they must introduce their friend
donkey to Dharma as it would be a
noble deed. And so, when the camel
approached, they tied them up
together.
The camel was flustered at being tied
up with the donkey and started
running fast, dragging the donkey
behind it. The donkey started braying

loudly in pain. The donkeys master, a

washer man, heard the donkeys
braying and came running to the
spot. He picked up a stick and ran
after the four learned fools to beat
them. The four Brahmins ran for their
lives.
They kept on walking till they reached
a river. They wanted to cross the
river, but did not see any boat nearby.
One of them suddenly shouted,
Look, there is a leaf floating in the
water. My holy book says if we catch
hold of any floating object, we will not
drown. And saying this, he jumped
on the leaf. He did not know how to
swim and soon started to drown.

One of the Brahmins jumped in the

water to save him, but was unable to
drag him to the shore because of his
weight. He then remembered a
quotation from his holy book: If we
cannot get back anything completely
we must try to retrieve at least half of
it. With this literal meaning in mind
the foolish Brahmin cut off his friends
head, killing him instantly.
The remaining three Brahmins kept
wandering on, until they reached a
village. The villagers warmly
welcomed them. Three of the
villagers invited each Brahmin to their
own house for lunch.
One of the Brahmins was served with
sewaiyan (spaghetti). The Brahmin

looked at the long and thin shape of

the sewaiyan and remembered a
quotation from the holy books: The
Dirghasutri (meaning lazy but having
literal meaning long and lean) is
easily destroyed. The foolish
Brahmin thought that he may also get
destroyed by eating sewaiyan. And
so, he did not touch the food and
went away hungry.
The second Brahmin was served with
fresh roti. The foolish Brahmin
consulted his holy book which said,
Round and flat things decay very
soon. He thought, If I eat this roti
which is round and flat, then I will
also decay and die very soon. So, he
too left his food and went away
hungry.

The third Brahmin was served with

vadas. The vadas were made of dal
and had a hole at the centre. He
remembered what he had read in his
book, Holes lead to problems. And
so, the third Brahmin also left his
food and went away hungry.
Eventually, the three foolish scholars
remained hungry and everybody
made fun of them.