When the Lion Came Back to the Life
Long, long ago, there lived four friends in a village. Three of them were very learned, but they absolutely lacked in common sense. The fourth one, although not much learned, had a lot of common sense. He, at least, knew what was good and what was bad and was practical to quite an extent.
Once the three learned friends decided to travel to far off towns and cities in order to make their fortune. They were not ready to take their fourth friend with them, because he was not learned, but ultimately agreed to do so, considering that he was their childhood friend.
Soon the four friends set out on a long journey. They walked from one city to another, looking for an opportunity to amass wealth. Once, while they were passing through a dense forest, they came across a heap of bones lying under a tree.
One of the learned friends observed the bones and said, “Here is a fine opportunity to test our knowledge. These are the bones of a lion. Let’s bring this lion back to life.”
Then he assembled all the bones together to make it into a skeleton of a lion and chanted some mantras.
The second learned man chanted some other mantras and put skin, flesh and blood into the skeleton. Now it looked like a lion, but lifeless.
And the third learned man got up to do the final act of putting life into the lifeless body of the animal.
As he started chanting the mantras, the fourth friend shouted, “Stop! please don’t do this. It might prove dangerous to bring this beast back to life.”
“Shut up, you fool,” said all the three friends. “What do you know in the field of learning and knowledge. Better you keep your mouth shut.”
“Wait a minute please,” said the fourth friend and quickly climbed up a nearby tall tree.
His three friends laughed. They put life into the lifeless body of the lion.
As soon as the huge lion came back to life, he roared loudly and killed all the three learned men. He ate their flesh and disappeared behind the thick bushes.
Moral:– Knowledge without common sense is useless.