The Broken Pot

An interesting story from the Panchatantra collection.

Once upon a time, there lived a poor man. He was all alone and had no friends or relatives. He was very poor and did not have much to eat.

But every day he made it a habit to keep a hand full of rice in an earthen pot before his meals. He used to hang the pot besides his bed. He always keeps an eye on it. He wanted to sell it and make money out of it in future.

One day, he found that the pot was filled with rice. He was very happy because he now had enough quantity to sell the next day morning.

As the night progressed, the poor man 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 started dreaming what will happen the next day when he sells the pot of rice for good money.

With that money, He would buy eggs, wait till they hatch into chickens.

And he will grow them into hens, which he would sell and 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 herd of goats for buffaloes and cows. Then they would give birth to their young calf. They would grow up into buffaloes and cows and give lots of milk.

   

With the milk he gets from them he will make lots of butter and curd. 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. After seeing his growth another rich man would ask him to marry his daughter. Then he will be married. Soon, the wife would give birth to a child.

                    

The child would play around all day making noise. So he would get anxious and would pick a stick and run after him.

Buried in his dream, the poor man 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 and on the mud floor.

The poor man then woke up to find that he was dreaming the whole situation. All his dreams got shattered all at once when he say the rice spill to the soil which he cannot sell.

So Kutties the moral of this story is :

One should not build castles in the air.

The proverb that goes with the moral of this story is

Don't count your chickens before they're hatched.

Meaning :

1.    You should not count on something before it happens.

2.   You should not expect all of your hopes to be fulfilled.