The Three foolish Brothers

Once upon a time, long ago, there lived a wealthy merchant called Vishnu in the kingdom of Vidhipur. He was extremely shrewd and had amassed a massive fortune to last him a life time. He had three sons, Vidu, Vasu and Vayu. All three of them were big fools and good for nothing. They were all well past twenty springs but still depended on their father’s income. Vishnu wanted to teach his sons the value of hardwork, so he said, ‘ Today, I would like the three of you to take a cartful of apples and sell it in the village. Only if you are able to sell half the apples in the cart will you get dinner tonight.’ The brothers agreed with a bad grace, and then bidding their father goodbye, the left for the village.

The reached a big banyan tree after sometime. ‘We should try and sell the apples here.’ Said Vasu. His brothers agree with him. They put the cart of apples in front of them and sat in the cool shade of the tree.

Big fools though they were, the brothers prided themselves to be extremely clever. As time ticked by and the brothers got bored, they started arguing about who was the cleverest among them. ‘ I once solved a big mystery and helped the king by finding him a precious jewel which had gone missing.’ Boasted Vidhu. ‘ And I once found a merchant cheating the king and made him own up.’ Countered Vayu. Now, unknown to the brothers, a trickster called Chetak was standing behind the tree and listening to their conversation. He realised that it would be too easy for words to trick the brothers, who appeared to be plainly dumb.

He suddenly appeared from behind the tree and surprised the three of them. ‘ Hello, young boys,’ he said, putting on a charming smile. ‘ I’m sorry I couldn’t help overhearing your conversation. I have a way to find out that which one of you is the smartest.’ ‘Do tell us.’ Said the brothers in unison.

‘The one who solves my riddle will be the smartest.’ He said, ‘ Here’s my riddle: Let’s say that your dad makes a will to distribute these apples among the four of us; his three sons and a very good friend. His will gives me a fourth of the apples. His will also gives Vayu, a tenth of the remaining, Vasu a fifth of the remaining and Vidhu the remaining. Now, your dad knows about a new business idea which his friend has thought of. That’s me. Now, your dad wants you to give me each one of the apples so that I can give you double the price after a couple of days. Tell me who gets the most apples?’

The brothers thought for a while to get a solution, but since the question was absolutely nonsense, they didn’t have an answer! At last, the youngest of the brothers, Vidhu, said confidently ‘ I guess, all the apples should be yours, Mister.’

‘ I was about to say that!’ complained Vasu, and soon the brothers started arguing with each other. ‘ All the apples definitely belong to me.’ Said Chetak, and then from right under the nose of the brothers, he took the cart and ran away. It was a bit too late when the brothers finally realised that the cart of apples was missing, and that they had been most ingeniously tricked.