A BARBER who was passing under a haunted tree,
heard a voice say, "Will you accept seven jars full
of gold?" The barber looked around, but could see
no one. The offer of seven jars of gold, however,
roused his cupidity, and he cried aloud, "Yes, I
shall accept the seven jars." At once came the
reply, "Go home, I have carried the jars to your
house." The barber ran home in hot haste to verify
the truth of this strange announcement. And when
he entered the house, he saw the jars before him.
He opened them and found them all full of gold,
except the last one which was only half-full. A
strong desire now arose in the barber's mind to fill
the seventh jar also for without it his happiness
was incomplete. He therefore converted all his
ornaments into gold coins and put them into the
jar; but the mysterious vessel was, as before,
unfilled. This exasperated the barber. Starving
himself and his family, he saved some amount
more and tried to fill the jar; but the jar remained
as before. So one day he humbly requested the
king to increase his pay, as his income was not
sufficient to maintain himself. Now the barber was
a favourite of the king, and as soon as the request
was made the king doubled his pay. All this pay he
saved and put into the jar, but the greedy jar
showed no signs of filling. At last he began to live
by begging from door to door, and his professional
income and the income from begging—all went
into the insatiable cavity of the mysterious jar.
Months passed, and the condition of the miserable
and miserly barber grew worse every day. Seeing
his sad plight the king asked him one day: "Hallo!
When your pay was half of what yon now get, you
were happy, cheerful and contented; but with
double that pay, I see you morose, care-worn and
dejected. What is the matter with you? Have you
got 'the seven jars'?" The barber was taken aback
by this question and replied, "Your Majesty, who
has informed you of this?" The king said: "Don't
you know that these are the signs of the person to
whom the Yaksha consigns the seven jars. He
offered me also the same jars, but I asked him
whether this money might be spent or was merely
to be hoarded. No sooner had T asked this
question than the Yaksha ran away without any
reply. Don't you know that no one can spend that
money? It only brings with it the desire of
hoarding. Go at once and return the money." The
barber was brought to his senses by this advice,
and he went to the haunted tree and said, "Take
back your gold, O Yaksha." The Yaksha replied,
"All right." When the barber returned home, he
found that the seven jars had vanished as
mysteriously as they were brought in, and with it
had vanished, his life-long savings too.
Those who do not understand the difference
between what is real expenditure and what is real
income, lose all they have.
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