Folk Tale ‐ The Brahmin and The Rice

In times gone by, when gods and goddesses used to visit the mortal world , there was a
covetous brahmin who was returning from performing the last rites for a deceased
person. He had a nice fill of food for himself out there and was returning back home.
On his way, he started feeling uncomfortable and held back his stomach, feeling the
need to take a quick dump. Looking for a nice spot to lighten up he found a paddy field
nearby which had its seeds all ripened on the strings and thus, he decided to go there.
Meanwhile, while doing his job, a soft wind blew and gave the rice strings a nice dance.
In those times instead of being wrapped in the husks, the rice used to be free of them.
In the sunlight the rice strings shone like gold and felt so tempting to the greedy
brahmin that he slurped out the rice grains from the strings and started chewing them
raw. Seeing this gruesome act of insolence and absurdity goddess Laxmi, the goddess of
wealth and food, went furious and descended from heaven and cursed the brahmin
that, the whole culture would obtain food by asking for alms (Bhiksha) and that from
then onwards rice would be covered in husks; no one would be able to have them
directly.

The takeaway we are getting from this is that, one should not be blindly greedy
and appreciate what he or she already has.

Khushi Rai

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