Tit for tat

By Pranav Gupta

Once upon a time in a village called Dhampur, lived a greedy landlord. He gave his land for cultivation to farmers by applying strange conditions. Hari was a poor farmer who lived in the same village. The landlord gave his land on rent to Hari on a contract with a condition that 50% share is for the landlord and 50% share is for Hari. 

After cultivation, the landlord took the good crop and gave the bad crop to Hari. Due to this, Hari lived a very poor life. One day Ravi, Hari’s son, returned home for his holidays from the city. After seeing his father’s condition and listening to the landlord’s conditions, Ravi decided to do farming from that day. Ravi went to the landlord and told him that his father is not well, so he will work in his place. The landlord told Ravi that the upper part of the harvest would be his and the lower part of the harvest would be for Ravi. Ravi agrees to the conditions and goes to cultivate the farm. 

After three months, the landlord came to Ravi for his share. The landlord said, “Hello Ravi, give me my share of the harvest.” Ravi replied, “Hello Sir, sure, as per your condition, you can take the grass that is the upper part because my harvest is of groundnuts.” Listening to this, the landlord got angry, but according to the condition, he did not say anything. 

After a few days, the landlord called Ravi for cultivation and stated the condition that the upper part of the harvest will be for Ravi and the lower part will be for the landlord. After three months, the landlord visited his farm. Ravi said, “Hello Sir, as per the conditions, my share is of the upper part, and you can take the lower part, i.e., the roots and dirt, as the crop harvested is wheat.” This time again the landlord failed in his trick. So, the landlord said angrily, “Ravi! Next time the upper and lower part of the harvest will be mine, and you will keep the middle part.” Ravi answered, “No problem, but if you lose, you will give the poor farmers their share equally and would not play tricks with them.” The landlord agrees to this. 

After four months when he came to Ravi’s farm, he was shocked to see the sugarcane harvest. Ravi said that the landlord could take his upper and lower part, that is bush and roots, and Ravi will keep the sugarcane. Seeing his cleverness, the landlord realised his mistake and then onwards never cheated any farmer and gave them their fair share of the harvest. 

Moral – Greediness always leads to failure. So, we should not be greedy and be happy with what we have.