The Kind Snake Charmer

        Once upon a time there was a snake charmer called Nagesh in a village near Malgudi. He lived along with his wife Jaya. He had a snake which he used to take it to the town to entertain the people and make money for his living.

               There was a mela happening in the nearby town during a festival. Nagesh told Jaya that he will go to the town, perform with the snake and get some money and bring all the groceries for the daily needs. While on the way he saw another charmer by name Sampath ill-treating his snake. Nagesh requested him not harm the creature and requested him to give that snake to him. Instead, Nagesh gave all the money he with him. Nagesh was just left with only two snakes in the basket and a flute. Though he did not have money with him, he knew that he had done a good and god will help those who do good. He went to mela and started entertaining the crowd with his music from the flute. Snakes liked the music and they also started dancing to his tunes. Soon this circus became very famous in the mela and everyone rushed to see this. By evening Nagesh earned lot of money from the circus he performed. The king who heard this from his soldiers also witnessed the snakes dance and gave big prize money to Nagesh. Sampath was very much shocked and felt jealous because of this. He thought he could have earned all those moneys if he had not sold his snake to Nagesh.

               Nagesh went home and gave all the money he earned from the mela to his wife Jaya. He also told how helping animals has earned him such a huge fortune. Jaya had a similar basket like the once in which snakes were kept. She placed all the money in that basket and kept both baskets in the rooftop. Nagesh and Jaya had their supper and slept. Sampath was watching all these from the window and with his cunning mind he decided to steal all the money. In the dark night when Nagesh and Jaya had slept, he went inside the home and took a basket and ran away inside the forest. Hiding behind the bush without seeing what is inside the basket he put his hand inside. Both the snakes bit him on his hand, he collapsed and died there.

               Next morning Nagesh searched for his snakes and he could not find them at home. He searched all the placed around and finally went to the forest. He got shocked seeing the situation. Sampath had died and both the snakes were there. He realized that just because he did good, snakes were friendly with him and he also got a good fortune. Sampath was jealous with others fortune and he also wanted to harm the animals and in return, he had a painful death.