Honesty is the best Policy

'Honesty is the best Policy'

(This is a story about a poor milkman, who becomes rich by unfair and dishonest means. He got a lesson through which he learned that ‘Honesty is the best policy’).

In a far-off village, there lived a milkman. The milkman was very poor. His only means of income was by selling the milk he collected from the two cows he had in his backyard. However, the milk was not sufficient enough for him to earn a living of a six-member family. He was the only individual who earned in his family. His family included his wife, his aged parents, and two young daughters.

The milkman used to carry two big cans which could hold an amount of six litres of milk in each. However, he could fill milk of somewhere about only three litres in each can, which he could collect from his cows. He crossed a river every day to go to another city and sell the milk. One day, while crossing the river the milkman thought of a plan so that he could double his earnings. He mixed some amount of water in one of the milk cans and went to sell. He was happy as he was able to earn an extra amount of money by selling the extra litres of milk mixed with water. In this way, every day while crossing the river, the milkman would mix water in both the cans. Therefore, instead of earning three litres of milk for each can, now the milkman earns six litres of milk for both the cans. He continued the same process of mixing water with milk and then selling it to his customers.

The milkman became very wealthy through dishonest means. He crossed the river daily to reach the city where his customers lived. He mixed the water of the river generously with the milk that he sold for a good profit. Very soon he wanted to marry off one of his daughters. Therefore, one day he went around collecting the dues in order to celebrate the wedding of his daughter. With the large amount thus collected he purchased plenty of clothes and gold ornaments from the city. The milkman was very happy to buy everything and with the cheering mood, he happened to cross the river to go back to his village. But while crossing the river his boat got accidentally overturned. And to his misfortune, all his costly purchases were drowned in the river. The milkman was in grief and kept weeping. While he was weeping and watching the river water from the bank of the river, at that time he heard a voice from the river. The voice said, “It is of no use weeping because what you have lost is only the illegitimate gains that you have earned through your customers by fooling them.” The milkman understood his wrongdoing and he was very sorry for his mistake. What he had taken from the river, the river finally took it back from him.

Moral: "You can never gain anything by dishonest means".

Reference: Various.

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Paromita Pramanick ©2017. All Rights Reserved.