Story The Golden Plate ( 03 )

 

The Golden Plate

[Greed and Honesty]

Long ago in a place called Seri, two salesmen sold pots, pans and handmade trinkets. They

decided to divide the town between them. They also agreed that it was alright for the other

to hawk his wares

after the first had gone through his designated area.

One day, one of them was coming down a street when a poor little girl saw him and asked

her grandmother to buy her a bracelet. “We are too poor. We can’t afford it,”

replied the

old grandmother. “Since we don’t have any money, we can exchange one with our black

sooty old plate,” suggested the little girl. The old woman agreed to give it a try, and so she

invited the dealer in.

Seeing that they were poor humble people who probably had no money, the salesman did

not want to waste his time with them. Though the old woman pleaded with him, he said

he had no bracelet that she could afford to buy. Then she asked: “We have an old plate

that is useless to us, can we barter it for a bracelet?” The man took the plate and examined

it. He accidentally scratched the bottom of the plate, and to his surprise, discovered gold

gleaming underneath the black soot. The black sooty old plate was actually a golden plate!

But he didn’t tell the old woman of his discovery. Instead, he decided to deceive her

so he

could get the plate for virtually nothing. “This is not worth even one bracelet. There is no

value in this. I don’t want it!” he lied, and left thinking he would return later when they

would accept something of a lesser value for the plate.

Meanwhile, the second salesman who had finished peddling in his appointed part of the

town, came to the area where the first had been earlier. He ended up at the same house.

Again, the poor little girl begged her grandmother to trade the old plate for a bracelet. Seeing

that the second merchant was a nice gentle-looking man, the old woman invited him in and

offered to trade the same black sooty old plate for one bracelet. When he examined it, he

also noticed that it was pure gold under the grime. “All that I own, my goods and all my

money, are not worth as much as this gold plate!” he exclaimed kindly to the old woman.

Of course, the woman was shocked when she heard this, but the merchant’s honesty also

proved that he was indeed a good and honest fellow to her. So she said she would be happy

to accept whatever he could trade for it. “I’ll give you all my pots, pans and trinkets, plus

all my money, if you will let me keep just eight coins and my balancing scale, with its cover

to put the gold plate in,” said the salesman. “Deal,” replied the old woman. The trade was

made and the second merchant went down to the river, where he used his remaining eight

coins to pay the boatman to ferry him across.

Meanwhile, the greedy salesman had returned to the old woman’s house, dreaming of huge

imaginary profits in his head. When he met the little girl and her grandmother again, he

told them he had changed his mind and was willing to offer a few cents, but not one of his

bracelets, for the useless black sooty old plate. “Sir, you lied to us,” replied the old woman

and then she calmly told him of the trade she had just struck with the honest salesman.

Instead of being ashamed, the greedy salesman was upset that he had lost the precious

plate that must be worth a hundred thousand. “Which way did he go?” asked the dishonest

merchant. She told him the direction, and he promptly dropped all his things right at her

doorstep and ran down to the river, thinking: “He robbed me! He robbed me! He won’t

make a fool out of me!”

At the riverbank, he saw the boatman ferrying the honest salesman halfway across the river.

“Come back, come back!” he shouted to the boatman. But the good merchant instructed

him to keep rowing, and so he continued crossing the river.

Seeing that there was nothing he could do, the greedy salesman exploded with rage. He beat

his chest, and jumped up and down. He was so angry and filled with so much hatred for

the honest man, who had gotten the golden plate, that he coughed out blood, had a heart

attack and died on the spot!

The moral is

✏

honesty is the best policy.

Posted by irawan

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