Once upon a time there lived a farmer named Bholeram in the village called Surajpur. He lived in the village with his wife.
His wife, Kamala was an extremely talkative woman. The people of the village, too, were wary of Bholeram’s wife. They knew her to be an incessant gossip-monger who spread false rumours and gossip about their families. Many of them kept a distance from her.
One day, while Bholeram was working in his field, he heard a sound as his plough ran across a particular area of the field. He looked down and saw a box in the mud. As he opened the box, he could scarcely believe what he saw. Inside the box were jewels and precious stones of every design and type. He hid the box inside some shrubs. In the evening he stealthily carried the box home.
He was afraid of tell his wife. He knew that anything told to her would reach every home in the village by the next morning.
If the village people came to know about his treasure, very soon the matter would reach the king. He would be arrested for not handing over the treasure to the king for that was the law. Bholeram thought deeply. He hit upon a plan. He would save his treasure and would also cure his wife of her bad habit of gossiping forever.
The next day before dawn, he went into the forest. He carried a bag full of jalebis (sweets) and a fish which he had bought. He selected a tree with lot of branches and began to hang the jalebis from the branches with some thread. He then climbed another tree nearby and found an abandoned bird’s nest. He put the dead fish in the nest.
He went home quietly. He went to his wife in the afternoon and told her that he would show her something interesting. His wife went with him to the forest. Bholeram took her to the trees and showed the strange sight to her. Kamala was surprised beyond measure. She had never seen anything like this in her life. A tree that grew jalebis and a fish that lived in a nest up in the tree! She could hardly contain herself. “I have to tell the villagers what she had seen today.” she told herself.” I cannot rest until I show them these strange sights.”
Bholeram went back to his home with his wife. He wife was still bubbling with excitement.
She could hardly wait. The next morning, she finished her morning chores before daybreak. As the sun rose, she went to the houses one by one as she narrated the strange sight she had seen.
The villagers did not believe her. “You must have dreamt in the night”, they told her. “If you do not believe, come with me”, Kamala said.
She took the villagers to the spot where she had seen the strange spectacle the evening before. But to her surprise she found not a single jalebi in the tree. Upset, Kamala climbed the tree to show the fish in the nest. But to her shock, the nest was also empty. There was no fish. Unknown to her, her husband had crept out of the house in the night. He went to the forest with a lantern and removed the jalebis and the fish.
The people started laughing at poor Kamala. “You have just been dreaming”, they said “Stop wasting our time like this”. Kamala was terribly embarrassed. She was sure that she had seen the jalebis.
Kamala was embarrassed throughout the day. That evening, Bholeram called her inside his room and showed her the treasure. Kamala was happy. They would be poor no more. Bholeram told her how he had discovered the treasure while ploughing.
That evening, Kamala went about her daily routine from house to house. She told them about the treasure her husband had discovered. “We are going to be very rich”, she told her friends.
She thought that the villagers would be jealous of her new fortune. But to her surprise, the villagers looked at her with pity. “The woman had gone mad”, they told one another, “This morning, she told us about jalebis in trees and a fish that lived in a bird’s nest and now she is telling us about a treasure which was found in the field.”
“She needs to see a good doctor”, they said. Kamala tried to tell them that their treasure was real. “Yes! Just as real as those jalebis and the fish on the tree”, they laughed at her. Bholeram’s plan had worked. Nobody took Kamala seriously anymore. Bholeram kept the treasure safely at home. In due course, he sold his treasure and with the money built a business and lived happily with his wife for many years. Kamala felt so humiliated in front of the villagers that she gave up her habit of gossiping.
Children, this humorous tale tells us about the bad habit of gossiping. We need to refrain from talking too much. Gossiping spreads rumours and creates problems. This also teaches how intelligence and smart thinking can help us come out of a tight situation.