In ancient times, they say, it happened one day that Teli was carrying a jug of oil in a shallow bamboo basket. He went to the village to sell oil. On the way he met Santal and asked:
- Listen, do you want to come into my service?
“I want to,” he answers. - If you take it, I agree.
“Well, if so,” Teli was delighted, “bring my basket of butter.” For this I will immediately give you two annas in copper coin.
“Okay,” Santal agreed. - I'll carry it.
And indeed, he put the basket on his head and carried it. He walks and talks to himself:
“He will immediately give me two annas with a copper coin. For one anna I will buy food. This one I will leave, and the second will remain. With it I will buy chickens. The chickens will lay eggs and hatch the chicks. When the chickens grow up, I will keep the hens - let them lay eggs, and castrate the cockerels. I will fatten them properly and sell them for four annas apiece. With this money I will buy myself goats. As they will I’ll leave the kids and goats for the breeding, and I’ll castrate the goats. Then I’ll sell them, and with the proceeds I’ll buy the cows, so I’ll keep the heifers for my herd, and I’ll emasculate some of the oxen, and I’ll get money for them, and I’ll exchange the buffaloes for the calves, and let the heifers go into the herd, and then let them grow up. I’ll go cold. Then I’ll buy a lot of land for rice, and millet, and plow. When the land begins to yield, I’ll get married, and the kids will start running around and playing around. I’ll come home after work, sit on the bed, and my wife will bring me water and chopsticks, I’ll brush my teeth and then the kids will come running and say: “Father, wash your hands and go eat.” And I’ll shake my head and say: “No, no! I won’t eat.”
Then he really shouted: “No, no!” – and shook his head. The basket slipped off the head and the jug shattered into pieces. Teli began to scold:
“Oh-oh-oh!” he says. - How did you carry it, dear? All my butter was gone; we didn’t manage to sell even a paise. Ruined all my oil. Now I won’t give you a single paisa; I will demand from you how much a jug of fresh oil costs.
“You won’t get anything from me for fresh oil,” answered Santal. - You say I brought you a loss. I myself have lost much more.
Teli became completely furious, and they had an argument. At the end Santal says:
- Come on, don’t swear. Let's count the losses first. If you have lost more than mine, I will pay you for everything, and if my losses are greater, you will pay me. Do you agree?
To tell the truth, Teli agreed.
“Okay,” he says. - Let's count. Teli didn’t know what Santal had come up with. He reasoned this way: “This Santal walked empty-handed, he had nothing on him. What will he find there?” So he said:
“I had two rupees worth of oil, and the pot costs an ana.” This is the loss you caused me. Lay out two rupees and one ana.
Santal answered him:
- Okay, now I'll tell you what I lost. Just do the math.
And Santal went to count his losses. He started with the money that he was owed from Teli, from them to the chickens, from the chickens to the goats, and went on and on to tell everything that he had imagined: how his income grew, and how he refused to eat and dropped the basket from his head, causing the jug of oil to break.
Santal is telling the story, and Teli can’t help but laugh, so he breaks it down.
Santal told everything to the very end and asked:
- Well, tell me now, which of us has more losses? Teli says:
– According to my calculations, it turns out that we lost equally. We both have big losses. What should we do? You brought losses to both of us. How can I fix things now? Let's accept everything as it comes.
So we parted with laughter.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru