32. The Picked Clue

Once there lived a man in a village. He had become very old. Seeing his declining age, he wished to go on a pilgrimage to Mecca.

Before the man left for the pilgrimage, he entrusted his savings kept in a jar with his neighbor.

The man returned happily from the pilgrimage after six months. On his return, he went to his neighbor to greet him and ask for his jar of savings. The neighbor greeted the man happily and brought him the jar. However, to his woes the man found that the jar had mango pickle instead of his money.

The man told his neighbor, ‘Friend, this jar looks similar to one I entrusted with you. But the jar I entrusted you with had money. But this jar has some priceless pickle’.

The neighbor was sly. He contended, ‘Friend, it is the same jar you gave me. I do not know about the money. I am returning whatever you entrusted me with’.

The man was disappointed. He was clueless of how to prove his merit. He decided to approach Birbal to intervene in the matter. Together with Birbal, the man went to the neighbor’s house. Birbal asked the man, ‘Could you tell us where is the money which was kept in this jar?’

The neighbor denied that the jar had money. He said, ‘I do not know if there was any money in the jar. He entrusted the jar to me and I didn’t open it. I kept the jar the way he gave me and returned it the same way’.

Birbal called the women of the house. He kept some pickle from the jar on a plate and asked the women the age of pickle. It was fresh pickle and the women said, ‘It is freshly made pickle. The mangoes are yet to sour to form the pickle. The pickle is not six months or older’.

The neighbor was immediately got caught as the man went on the pilgrimage six months before. The man accepted his mistake and said, ‘I was taken away by greed. Forgive me for I have done’. He returned the money to the man he took out from the jar.

Moral- Truth always finds its way.