Paying for a beating

There were two men who were deadly enemies. They hated each other and, at the same time, there was constant rivalry between them. Eventually, it came to the point where one of them engaged a professional wrestler. This wrestler was huge and extremely powerful.

The employer said to the wrestler, “Here, take these hundred rupees. Now I will be so grateful if you can wait on the street where my enemy lives. When he comes home from work, I want you to beat him up. He has been torturing me for so many years. The time has come for him to be humbled.”

The wrestler said, “Definitely I will beat him up, since you are giving me a hundred rupees. Soon he will receive a sound thrashing from me.”

The following day, the man who had employed the wrestler was coming home from the market. He saw the wrestler waiting for him outside his house. He thought that the wrestler had some good news for him and so he hurried in his direction. Alas, when he came near the wrestler, the wrestler threw him to the ground and started beating him mercilessly.

As the man was lying flat on the ground screaming and kicking, he managed to cry out, “What happened? I gave you a hundred rupees to thrash my enemy and now you are giving me the same treatment! You are so bad! Why are you doing this?”

The wrestler replied, “Why? I was waiting for your enemy on the street, according to your instructions. He saw me as he was approaching his house and asked me what I was doing there. I told him that you had offered me a hundred rupees to give him a beating, so he immediately offered me four hundred rupees if I would beat you up instead. He gave me much more money than you did for the same job. So I accepted his offer and now I have done my job. But I do have a conscience. Because of my conscience, I am returning your one hundred rupees.”

The wrestler took one hundred rupees out of his pocket and gave them to his victim, who was lying on the ground in utmost pain. He kept the four hundred rupees that the second man had given him.