Life Wasted

In a certain village there was a well read and learned man who was very proud of his learning. He would look upon illiterates as worthless creatures. In his opinion, the land tillers, wood cutters, fisherman, various artisans and people like them were wasted in the society.

One day, the learned man had to cross the river in order to go to the other side. He went up to the shore and got into the boat. The boatman waited for sometime for more passengers. But, no on else came. So, he started to cross the river with the learned man as only passenger.

As the boat crossed to the other side, the learned man looked at the boatman with pity and contempt. He thought “This unfortunate man must be doing this work practically all his life. There is no learning in him whatsoever.”

“My dear man,” said the learned man to the boatman with all the pity, “You are good as dead.”

“Sir, why do you say that?” asked the boatman, surprised.

“Have you learned the science?” asked the learned man. “No Sir! I have not,” replied the boatman.

“Ah then you are half dead!” replied the learned man triumphantly. “Have you learned the scriptures?” asked the learned man.

“I am too busy in my job to spare any time for learning scriptures,” replied the boatman.

“There you are! You are three-quarters dead. Let us see if you have read any literature?” asked the learned man.

“Oh, Sir! I don’t know how to read, leave alone literature,” replied the boatman.

“See what I mean? You are only ten percent alive. This is hardly called alive,” replied the learned man all pleased.

While they were chatting, the weather changed. The mighty wind started to blow and the river started to rise in waves. The boat started to toss in those waves. Soon the sky darkened and it started to rain heavily. As the boat started to toss in the choppy waters, the water started to enter the boat. Soon the boatman lost all control of the boat.

After judging the situation, the boatman decided to abandon the boat as this was the only course to take. He shouted to the learned man “Sir! do you know how to swim?”

“No, my dear man, I do not,” replied the learned man.

“Then Sir, I must tell you your life is completely wasted,” said the boatman as he jumped into the river and swam away towards the shore.

The End