The dishonest son-in-law

Three friends were on their way to the market. One of them was very, very intelligent, and the other two had tremendous respect for him. On their way they found a bundle. They picked it up and, out of sheer curiosity, they opened it and found a large sum of money inside.

One of them said, “It is not good for us to keep this money. Let us go and give it to the village zamindar.”

The second one said, “Yes, we should be honest. The poor fellow who has lost it is now miserable.”

The intelligent one said, “You fools! Why should we do that? We three need money badly. It is our good fortune that we discovered the bundle, and it is somebody else’s bad fortune to lose it. Why should we be responsible for his bad fortune? We should be grateful to God for our good fortune. Let us divide the money. Let us all take equal shares.”

Now, how long can good qualities last? The good qualities of the first two friends surrendered to the bad qualities of the intelligent man. Sometimes good qualities last only for a few seconds.

The three friends divided the money, and each one received a very large sum. They went to the market and got the things they needed, and still they had lots of money in their pockets.

When the intelligent man returned home, he saw his mother-in-law at the door, crying very bitterly. He and his mother-in-law were on very good terms. So when he saw his mother-in-law crying and crying, it absolutely broke his heart.

He said to her, “You are like my own mother. You are full of affection and love for me. You know that I am so fond of you. I will do anything you want me to do.”

His mother-in-law said, “Then please, please, can you take me to the police station nearby?”

“What has happened?” he asked anxiously.

She explained, “I was coming to your place, and I was bringing with me lots of money for you, because you are like my real son. For my daughter I was bringing a most expensive diamond ring. Now, unfortunately, I dropped my bag and I cannot find it. I do not even know where I dropped it. Let us go at once and inform the police. After that we can search for it ourselves. But I do not think that we will find it.

The son-in-law began to shed bitter tears. He did not have the heart to tell his mother-in-law what he and his friends had done. He simply said, “All right, let us go to the police station first.”

Both of them went to the police station and reported the missing money, but the son-in-law knew in the heart of his heart what he had done. He said, “I feel so sorry about your loss. I have a little money, please accept it.” He did not tell her that he was the culprit. He merely said, “This little money I would like to give you.”

She said, “Why? I do not need money from you. I came here to give you money. I do not need it for myself. It is very kind of you to offer it, but I do not need it. I only feel miserable that I am unable to give you the money I had intended to give. Such a large amount I brought with me to give you.”

Where is comedy in life? It is full of sadness.

From:Sri Chinmoy,Life’s bleeding tears and flying smiles, part 6, Agni Press, 2001
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/lts_6