Ishwar Jha

Two monks went into a heated argument regarding what they heard during the discourse today.

Each of them insisted that he only heard and understood it correctly. To settle the dispute, they went to see the master.

After hearing the first monk, the master said, “You are correct!”

The monk was overjoyed. Casting a winner’s glance at his friend, he left the room.

The second monk was upset and started telling his understanding with grin.

After he finished, the master looked at him and said, “You are correct, too.” The second monk’s mood also brightened up and he went away.

A third monk who was also in the room was greatly puzzled. He said to the master, “I am confused, master!

Their positions regarding the issue are completely opposite. They can’t be both right! How could you say that they are both correct?”

The master smiled and said to third monk, “You are also correct!”

One night, a thief entered the hut of a sage. He was writing a letter, so he looked at the thief and said, ”For what have you come? What do you want?”

And this sage was so innocent that even the thief couldn’t tell a lie. So he said, ”Looking at you, so mirror-like, so innocent like a child, I cannot tell a lie. Should I tell the truth?”

The sage said, ”Yes.”

He said, ”I have come to steal something.”

The sage said, ”There in that corner I have got a few rupees. You can take them” – and then he  focused on to write his letter again.

The thief took the money and was trying to leave and then the sage said, ”Stop! When somebody gives you something you should thank him. The money may not be of much help, but thanking a person will go a long way and will be of help to you. So thank me!”

The thief thanked him and disappeared into the dark.

Later on the thief was caught, and it was discovered that he had been to this sage’s hut also, so the sage was called to the court.

The sage said in court, ”Yes, I know this man very well – but he has never stolen anything from me. I gave him some rupees and he thanked me for them. It is finished, there was nothing wrong. The whole thing is finished, the account is closed. I gave him some money and he thanked me for it. He is not a thief.”