A barber, who was passing under a haunted tree, heard a voice say,
"Will you accept seven jars full
of gold?" The barber looked around, but could see no one. The offer of
seven jars of gold, however, roused his cupidity and he cried aloud,
"Yes, I shall accept the seven jars." At once came the reply. "Go
home, I have carried the jars to your house." The barber ran home in
hot haste to verify the truth of this strange announcement. And when
he entered the house, he saw the jars before him. He opened ;them and
found them all full of gold, except the last one which was only
half-full. A strong desire now arose in the mind of the barber to fill
the seventh jar also; for without it his happiness was incomplete. He
therefore converted all his ornaments into gold coins and put them
into the jar; but the mysterious vessel was as before,unfilled. This
exasperated the barber. Starving himself and his family, he saved some
more amount and tried to fill the jar; but the jar remained as before.
So one day he humbly requested the king to increase his pay, saying
his income was not sufficient to maintain himself on. Now the barber
was a favourite of the king, and as soon as the request was made the
king doubled his pay. All this pay he saved and put into the jar, but
the greedy jar showed no signs of filling. At last he began to live by
begging from door to door, and his professional income and the income
from begging all went into the insatiable cavity of the mysterious
jar. Months passed, and the condition of the miserable and miserly
barber grew worse every day. Seeing his sad plight, the king asked him
one day, "Hallo! When your pay was half of what you now get, you were
happy, cheerful and contented; but with double that pay, I see you
morose, careworn and dejected. What is
the matter with you? Have you got 'the seven jars'?" The barber was
taken aback by this question and replied, "Your Majesty, who has
informed you of this?" The king said, "Don't you know that these are
the signs of the person to whom the Yaksha consigns the seven jars. He
offered me also the same jars, but I asked him whether this money
might be spent or was merely to be hoarded. No sooner had I asked this
question than the Yaksha ran away without any reply. Don't you know
that no one can spend that money? It only brings with it the desire of
hoarding. Go at once and return the money." The barber was brought to
his senses by this advice, and he went to the haunted tree and said,
"Take back your gold, O Yaksha." The Yaksha replied, "All right." When
the barber returned home, he found that the seven jars had vanished as
mysteriously as they were brought in, and with it also had vanished
his life-long savings. Such is the state of some men in the Kingdom of
Heaven. Those who do not understand the difference between what is
real expenditure and what is real income, lose all they have.
BigGains !!
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