The Measure of Rice

One there lived a king. The king was merciless and collected heavily taxes from his masses.

The king has a valuer in his four. The valuer measured the grain, gold or other valuables brought to the king and set its price in terms of animals such as the horses, elephants and other animals. The valuer was a just man and gave fair value to the onwers who came to the king. But the king was dishonest and he loathed the valuer's work. 

One day the king said in disguist, 'Your valuation seem to be too good. If I would have another valuer in your place, I would have been much richer!'

One day a miser peasant came to the palace yard for valuations. The king asked him, 'Would you like to be my valuer?'

The peasant was surprised to hear the king. He said, 'You majesty! I am your servant. I will be more than pleased to serve you as you valuer'.

The king send the honest valuer away for some work and made the miser peasant as his valuer. However, the valuer has no knowledge about valuations and randomly set price for gold, grains; etc which were bought to him. The people who came for valuations noted his mistakes and went to the king for help.

One day a horse dealer brought five hundred horses to the king's court. The valuer quoted a small stack of rice as the value of those five hundred horses. He asked the king's men to put the horses in the stable and give the horse dealer the stack of rice in return.

The horse-dealer lamented. He went to find the old valuer for his advise.

When the horse dealer met the old valuer, he arrayed the entire incidence to him and said, 'Sir, kindly suggest a way out'.

The old valuer was wise and witty. He said, 'Go to the valuer and please him with a fine gift. Ask him the worth of rice you have been given before the king'.

The horse dealer went to the valuer and became friendly with him. He asked him, 'Friend, can you value his stack of rice before the king in his court?'

The valuer agreed and they went to the king's court. The horse dealer said, 'My lord! My five hundred horses have been valued to this stack of rice. I request you to ask the valuer the value of this stack of rice'.

The king asked the valuer, 'What is the value of five hundred horses brought by this horse dealer?'

The valuer replied, 'A stack of rice'.

The kind continued, 'What is the worth of this stack of rice?'

"A measure of rice, O King!" said he.

The valuer replied unthoughtfully, 'It worth your entire kingdom, your majesty!'

The entire council of ministers burst into laughter. They mummered among themselves, 'What a stupid valuer. How can such a man hold an important position of valuer? Where has the previous valuer gone?'

The king heard them and felt ashamed of his decision to appoint the stupid fellow as a valuer. He immediately banished the valuer from position of valuer and asked him to leave the court immediately.

The valuer thought, 'I thought I would impress the king by setting a low price for the horses. But I was unmindful when I set the value for the stack of rice'. He ran away from the court where courtiers mocked at him.

Moral: If you do good to others, the good will come to you. No one can sustain long by deceiving people.