Riches, a deadly temptation..!

20 07 2011

This is another old story which is worth being told again!

disclaimer: the characters mentioned below are imaginary, any resemblance to any living person is purely coincidental.

By the waters of Aalapuzha lived 2 families whose sole bread earning profession was fishing. Ajeev joseph and johnny mathew religiously go to the waters everyday and fish together and sell it in the market. at the end of the day, they divide the share equally and take it home. Yet what sandra joseph was unable to comprehend was the fact that despite getting the same amount of money at the end of each day, how lilly and johnny mathew are able to be so happy?

lilly’s house was always flooded with friends and relatives.. the fun they all had while partying every night by the bonfire they lit near their hut which was by the shore knew no bounds.. at the end of all the singing dancing and cracking jokes, somehow lilly managed to feed everyone who had come with rice and fish which was fried in an abundance of coconut oil..

But sandra who also received the same sum of money never had satisfaction. she never had money for fun, to go out, to invite people for food, to be contented. she envied the mathew family.

One such night, her curiosity got the better of her and she secretly slipped out of her house to watch what the mathews and people were doing and how did lilly manage the money.. to her surprise, lilly got not a penny more than what sandra had gotten from her man. she divided the sum of 15 rupees into 2 parts. 7 rupees for buying food for tomorrow morning, 8 rupees for enjoying tonight. then jhonny took the 8 ruppes and brought fish and food for all of them.. then the clapping and cheering continued till dawn..

sandra went back home and narrated this to ajeev and he is left quite surprised at the fact that how can lilly and johnny be so happy without having any concerns about the future? how can they be so care free without saving any money for tomorrow? they came up with an idea.. sandra and ajeev made a kizhi (small pocket) and filled it with coins to sum up to 97 rupees. they left this kizhi at the doorstep of the mathew’s before the sunrise.

lilly came out next morning to find this bag.. and she was surprised and elated that Jesus had blessed them with a fortune.. she was elated.. but she did not share the news with sandra. that night when johnny came, they divided the money into 3 parts instead of 2.. to save 4 rupees and make the 97 as 101 coins. slowly they started keeping more and more in the bag.. since they had some, they wanted to make it more.. and slowly they were tempted to save more and more.. and all the celebration vanished.. they only spent what was just enough for the 2 of them and saved the rest.. slowly the 101 became 150.. and within no time they had 300.. but their happiness, the fun they had, the contentment and satisfaction were all gobbled by the temptation which that bag of 97 rupees gave them..!

Man made money.. money makes man mad…!!

the temptation that money gives us to gain more and raise the standard of living, is like an itch that gets interesting as you scratch and changes its location on you as each place you scratch turns red with irritation…!!


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