Four
friends lived in a city. Three of them were very well learned but
had no common sense. The fourth boy named Subuddhi was not well-versed
in scriptures but had a fund of common sense. One day all of them
thought that there was no use of their learning unless it brought them
money to live happily. Therefore, they decided to go out and make
money.
They
reached a forest where they saw a heap of bones. One of them told the
rest, “ Look, here is an opportunity to test our learning. Some animal
is dead. Let us bring it to life using the knowledge we have
acquired.”
The
first man said, “Okay, I will use my learning to assemble the bones into
a skeleton.” With the power of learning he ordered all the bones to come
together and become a skeleton.
When
the skeleton was ready, the second man commanded flesh and blood to fill
the skeleton and skin to cover it.
When
the third man was about to bring life to the body, Subuddhi, who had
only common sense, warned him, “ Look, this looks like the body of a
lion. If it comes to life, he will kill all of us. ” The man who was to
put life
into the body of the animal told Subuddhi, “ You are a fool. Do you
think I will lose this opportunity to test my learning.”
Subuddhi
then told him to wait so that he could climb up a tree for safety and
went up a tree. When the third man gave life to lion,
it came alive and killed all the three learned men.
MORAL : Wisdom
is always superior to learning. Foolish people perish like the Brahmin
boys who brought the lion to life.
