The Green Wood Gatherer
(Laziness)
Once upon a time, there lived a
world-famous teacher in the city of Takkasila. He was also a holy man who had
500 students under his wing. One day, these 500 young men went into a forest to
gather firewood, and one of them came upon a tree with no leaves. “How lucky I
am!” he thought. “This tree must be dead and dry. It is just perfect for
firewood. Now that I have located my share of the firewood, I’ll take a nap
while the others are busy searching for theirs. When it’s time to return, it
will be easy to climb this tree and break off the branches. So what’s the hurry?”
He spread his jacket on the ground, lay down on it, and fell fast asleep — snoring
loudly.
After a while, all the other students
began carrying their bundles of firewood back to Takkasila. On their way, they
passed by the snoring sleeper. “Wake up! Wake up! It’s time to return to our
teacher,” they said and kicked him to wake him up. The lazy student woke up
from his slumber and rubbed his eyes. Still in a sleepy state, he climbed up
the tree and started tearing off branches. To his surprise, he discovered that
they were actually still green, and not the least bit dead or dry. What was
worse, one of the branches he was breaking snapped back and poked him in the
eye. He had to cup his injured eye with one hand as he finished gathering his
bundle of damp wood. Huffing and puffing as he ran, he carried it back to
Takkasila, trying to catch up with the others. As he was the last one to
return, he threw his bundle on top of the rest.
Meanwhile, an invitation to a
religious ceremony was sent to the world-famous teacher. It was to be held the
next day at a remote village. “This will be good training for you,” said the
holy man to his 500 students. “Have an early breakfast tomorrow. Then go to the
village for the religious service. When you return, bring back my share of the offerings
as well as your own.” Obediently, the students got up early the next day. They
woke the college cook up and bade her to prepare their porridge for breakfast.
She went out in the dark to the woodpile, scooped up the top bundle of firewood
— the lazy man’s damp wood — brought it to the kitchen and tried to start her
cooking fire. But no matter how hard she blew, she couldn’t get the fire going,
for the wood was too green and damp.
She tried again and again. When the
sun came up, there were still no flames in sight.
“It’s too late for us to go to the
village now,” discussed the students. So they decided to consult their teacher.
“Why are you still here? Why haven’t
you set out for the village yet?” asked their teacher when he saw his students.
The students chimed, “A lazy good-for-nothing slept while we all slogged. He
climbed a tree and gathered only damp wood, which he hastily threw on top of
the woodpile. Unfortunately, his bundle was picked up by the college cook.
As it was green and damp, she
couldn’t start a fire to cook our breakfast. And now it’s too late to go to the
village.”
When the teacher heard the whole
story, he said, “A fool who is lazy causes trouble for everyone. When what
should be done now is put off until later, this action is soon regretted.”
The moral is ✏ “Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today.”
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