The Four Learned Fools

In far village, there lived four Brahmins. They were good friends.

One day, the four Brahmins decided to leave the village and go to the town for higher learning. They reasoned that the learned can make money to sustain well.

They left the village and went to live in a hermitage. There they studied hard for many years and acquired higher knowledge.

One day they gathered and decided to leave the hermitage, 'We have worked hard and mastered various sciences. It is now time for us to leave the hermitage and work to earn. Let's take the master's permission and leave'.

The Brahmins sought their master's permission, who blessed them. They left the hermitage with the scriptures and began traveling.

One day, the Brahmins reached a divergence of road. The Brahmins were confused which path to take and stood there thinking.

While the Brahmins were engrossed in thoughts, they saw a funeral procession approaching. It had many prominent dignitaries.

One of the Brahmins said, 'The scriptures indicate that right path is the path taken by great men. So we shall take the path of this funeral procession'.

They reached the cremation ground and wondered what to do next. Just then they saw a donkey. One of them read the guidelines from scripture and said, 'A true friend stands by you in times of trial and tribute'. The assumed that the standing donkey had been a faithful friend to the person who is being cremated.

So they washed the donkey's hoof and treated him respectfully. The donkey kept standing, while the Brahmin embraced him.

Suddenly, they saw a camel running towards them. They quickly read the scriptures and came up the guidelines - righteousness comes rapidly. They assumed that the camel racing towards them was a righteous incarnate.

One of them related the righteousness to friendship - 'a good man should lead his friend to righteousness', he affirmed.

So the Brahmins decided to lead the donkey to righteousness. They tied their donkey friend to camel (the righteousness).

The camel raced, dragging the donkey along with him. Soon the rope broke and the crashed on the stones. He was severely injured and bled.

The donkey belonged to the village washerman who had been searching him since morning. The village children who played nearby, told the washerman about his donkey and the Brahmins.

The washerman was angry. He found his donkey, but it was badly injured. He ran after the Brahmins to hit them for such an act of mischief or foolishness.

The Brahmins ran in fear of being thrashed. They reached a river bank and sat there. After sometime, a ficus (pipal) leaf on the water. The ficus tree is a holy tree and worshipped by the Hindus.

One of the Brahmins said, 'it is holiness that takes men across rivers'. So he jumped on the leaf in hope of crossing the river. But the currents were strong and lopped him. He began drowning.

The other scholars saw him struggling and one of them, jumped and caught him by neck. He recalled the phrase from scriptures - A wise man knows that total destruction is inevitable. Therefore, he sacrifices half and works with the remaining half'.

The scholar related the phrase to his friend's life and slit his throat. He dragged him to the bank of river, but found that his friend was dead. The scholars grieved the unintended  death of their friends.

They cremated the dead scholar and continued their journey. They traveled for days together and then reached a village. The people of the village were warm and welcoming. They gave separate houses to each of them. The villagers decided that the scholars should be served separately by three different families.

The scholars once again wrongly related the situations to scriptures and refused the food they were offered by the villagers. The first scholar, who was served with sweet  noodles;  related them tactics - 'long tactics bring about destructions', he recalled.

The second scholar was served with frothy soup. But he recalled what the scripture mentioned- 'A frothy thing cannot last for long.

The third scholar was served with donut shaped potato rings. But he related the hollow shaped food to defects and affirmed, 'Defeats are a sign of approaching danger'.

Thus, all three scholars refused the food went to sleep hungry.

Next days, the families who served the food to the scholars came to know that the scholars refused food and went hungry. The word spread across the village. The villagers came randomly and asked the scholars the reason for not having food.

The scholars explained how they related the food to guidelines and code of conduct outlined in scriptures. Hearing the scholars, the villagers were surprised. They understood that the scholars retained only bookish knowledge and lack common sense which is needed to survive the ways of life.

The villagers mocked and ridiculed the scholars. The scholars felt very humiliated and left the village immediately.

Moral: Knowledge without common sense is worthless.

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