Here is another interesting story from the
Panchatantra collection. Once upon a time, there lived a poor Brahmin by
the name of Swabhavakripna in a village. Swabhavakripna was all alone
and had no friends or relatives. He was known for his miserliness and
used to beg for his living. Whatever food he got as alms, he kept in an
earthen pot and hung it beside his bed. Whenever he felt hungry, he took
out some food from the pot and ate it.
One day, the Brahmin got a quantity of rice gruel, so much that even
after eating to his full, a pot full was left. Brahmin was very happy to
get such quantity of food. As the night progressed, the Brahmin lay on
his bed but he could not take his eyes from the pot. Soon, he was fast
asleep. He began to dream that the pot is overflowing with rice gruel.
He dreamt that if a famine came to the land, then he could sell it for
a hundred silver coins. With these silver coins, he would buy a pair of
goats. They would have kids in every six months and soon he would
acquire a herd of goats. Then he would trade the goats for buffaloes and
cows. Then they would have their young ones. They would grow up and give
lots of milk. He would sell the milk in the market and make lots of
butter and curd from it. Then he would sell that butter and curd in the
market. Like this, he would become richer than ever before.
With this money, he would buy a large house with four buildings in a
rectangle. A wealthy Brahmin after seeing his affluence would marry his
daughter to him. Soon, the wife would deliver a son and he would name
him Soma Sharma. The Brahmin would scold Soma, when he would play around
all day making noise. But Soma would not listen and anxiously the
Brahmin would pick a stick and run after him.
Buried in his dream, Brahmin picked up the stick lying near his bed. He
started hitting in the air with the stick. While doing so, he hit the
earthen pot with the stick, the pot broke and all the contents spilled
over him. The Brahmin woke up to find that he was dreaming the whole
situation. All his dreams got shattered at once.
Moral: One should not build castles in the air.
