Fruitless For Next Life-Stories Of Wisdom

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A selfish rich man, who spent most of his time in amassing wealth, once sat outside his house. He sat relaxing with a stick in his hand, when a poor man, rather stupid passed by.

The poor man questioned the other, the reason for having the stick in his hand.

The rich man, wanting to play a prank on the poor man on account of his stupidity, replied,
“Oh, this is a special stick, passed on from person to person for generations to stupid people. Each stupid person on finding another more stupid than him, hands it over to him"

The rich man continued, “On account of your stupidity, I hand over this stick to you. Please hand over this to someone who is far more stupid than you"

The poor man readily accepted the stick and went his way. Years passed and the poor man could not on some account handover the stick to anyone . One day he happened to visit the rich man whom old age had gripped with illness. After making some general enquiries, he asked as to what plans he had for the enormous wealth that he had accumulated down the years.

The rich man glumly replied, “My life has almost come to its end. But I cannot carry all the money that I earned to my next life. I will have to leave everything here. I should start off from nothing again"

The poor man on hearng this said, “You must have this stick now which, I have been carrying with me all these years. I cannot find a more stupid person than you who spent all your life pursuing something that cannot be carried over to your next life. You are the right person to own this stick!"

While the stunned rich man watched, the poor man left the stick at his bed-side and made his way out.

This short story is a powerful pointer to the folly of selfish human pursuits which, turns out to be fruitless at the close of life.