What I Desire? Story
During the reign of King Akbar, there lived a miser in Delhi. He was such a miser that he would only spend on what needed to eat. Then he used to shut away in a large box. He used to live in a small hut made of mud and straw. He did not even spend money on decent clothes. Seeing him, no one would believe that he had a large box full of gems and gold coins. He had kept the box hidden in a corner of his hut.
One day a fire broke out in his hut. The miser started crying and shouting for help. Hearing his cries, the neighbors gathered around to help. They brought buckets of water and tried their best to control the flames. But the straw hut showed no signs of stopping burning.
As the miser started crying even louder, one of the men in the crowd asked, “Why are you crying so hard? After all, it is nothing but an old straw hut.”
“Oh sir, you do not know. In the hut, I have all my life’s savings. There are a lot of gems and gold coins in a box inside the hut.”
The man who had enquired was a greedy goldsmith. He said, “I will go in and get the box for you. But you must promise me that after getting the box, I will give you what I desire and the rest will all be mine.”
The miser agreed. The greedy goldsmith jumped into the leaping flames to get the box. Soon he came out with minor burns and the miser’s box. The miser asked for his gems and gold coins.
To this, the greedy goldsmith replied, “I had said that I will give you what I desire. Here I desire to give you this box and the gems and coins are mine.”
“Hey! But that cheating…All right, I agree that you helped me out. You can take half of my savings and I will keep the other half.”
But the goldsmith did not decline. As the argument continued, the miser and the goldsmith went to Birbal for justice.
Birbal thought over the problem and said, “Goldsmith, you had promised to give the miser what you desire. Isn’t it?”
“Yes…sir. That is true,” the goldsmith replied.
“And what do you desire?” Birbal asked.
“The gems and coins, sir,” pat came the goldsmith’s reply.
“As per your promise, the gems and coins are the miser’s as you had promised to give him what you desire.”
The goldsmith realized that Birbal had played with his own words and there was nothing he could do about it. Thus the miser got his savings back due to Birbal’s justice.