The city of Lavanya Puri

Many years ago there was a city named Lavanya Puri. In that city people lived very, very happily. They were kind and courteous to one another; their businesses prospered and in every way they were making progress. The residents of other cities used to appreciate and admire Lavanya Puri and try to model their cities along the same lines.

God knows how or why, but after some time it happened that twenty hooligans from a distant tribe decided to enter Lavanya Puri and create trouble. At night these hooligans would destroy stores and plunder houses. They would attack and beat the men and torture the women. This gang quickly became notorious. Unfortunately, nobody was able to catch them and prevent them from doing their undivine deeds.

Eventually the Mayor of the city imposed a curfew. During the day everybody was allowed to move around freely, but after sunset nobody could come out of their house. The Mayor said to the people, “We can see that these hooligans are torturing us ruthlessly in so many ways during the evening. Therefore, it is wiser to stay at home with our families at night. Perhaps these hooligans will leave our city if everyone is home at night.”

So the curfew was enforced and nobody could venture out at night. People were unable to visit the homes of their relatives; they could not go out to eat; they could not go to the temple with offerings. All activities were stopped. One by one, businesses began to fail. The restrictions of the curfew were causing tremendous suffering, but there did not seem to be any alternative. On the one hand, the citizens were terrified of the hooligans; on the other hand, they were disturbed because they could not carry out their normal evening functions.

When the Governor of the province came to know about the situation in Lavanya Puri, he wrote a polite letter to the Mayor. He said, “I congratulate you on the curfew. You have done very well. People are not suffering anymore from unwarranted attacks. But now I wish to offer you another type of wisdom, a higher wisdom. Just because of twenty criminals, the whole city is being forced to suffer unbelievably. Why should the good citizens of your community be the ones to suffer? They are innocent. It is the bad people, the intruders, who should be made to suffer. I am advising you to change your policy. Now, it is time to be very strict. Kindly make an announcement that from now on if any hooligans appear, they will immediately be arrested and put into jail, and eventually they will be hanged for the crimes that they have committed.

“Let all the citizens come out of their houses at night and move around as usual. If anybody sees those hooligans in the streets, they should report the news to you immediately so that the police can come and arrest them. Everybody should be on the lookout. Now let us see if those hooligans will dare to do their work!”

The Mayor respectfully accepted the advice of the Governor and everything returned to normal. In fact, thousands of people came out into the streets that very night in the hope of catching the hooligans. When the hooligans saw that there was no possibility of continuing to plunder and steal from the citizens of Lavanya Puri without being caught and hanged, they lost all their courage. As soon as the citizens went home to sleep, the hooligans escaped as fast as their legs could carry them.