There lived in the lands of India a rich man who owned a lot of money. This man was known for good, kind, and generous character. Many of the town’s people frequented his house every day, and he would host them well and present them with whatever food and drink he had.
One day, this rich man suffered a great loss in his trade and lost his money, becoming poor without money. People stopped visiting him, and even his friends did not cooperate with him in his crisis. He was struck with severe sadness and regretted his generosity toward them throughout all the past years.
One day the man slept and had a strange dream. He dreamed of the temple priest talking to him and telling him that when he wakes from his sleep, he will find a priest like him on the doorstep. If he strikes him with the stick that the priest is holding, he will turn into countless golden coins.
When the man woke from his sleep, he was amazed at that dream and feared sharing it with his wife lest she mock him. While he was sitting with his wife, he heard a knock at the door. His wife hurried to open it, and there was her husband’s barber.
The barber entered and began to cut the man’s hair and beard. While the man was shaving his chin, he heard the sound of knocking at the door again. He stood up to open the door, and there was the temple priest he had seen in the dream the previous night. He grabbed his stick and struck him on the head, and he quickly turned into golden coins.
The barber was amazed at that behavior. The man decided to give the barber some of those coins so that he would not tell anyone in the town what had happened. The barber left and kept thinking about the matter. He thought that when he struck a temple priest, he would turn with supernatural power into golden coins.
The next day, the Indian barber went to the temple and invited five of the priests there to eat dinner at his house. When the priests entered the barber’s house, he grabbed the stick and kept striking them on their heads. One of the passersby heard their screaming and hurried to inform the king.
The king ordered that barber to be brought to receive his punishment. The barber told him what had happened with the rich man and that he was trying to imitate him. The king ordered his guards to bring that man. When the man stood before the king, he told him about the dream he had seen.
The king understood that it was special assistance for the man whose friends had abandoned him, but the foolish barber’s greed drove him to repeat what he had seen without understanding. The king ordered the foolish barber to be imprisoned for what he had done to the temple priests.
The moral of the story: To teach the child to think about matters before rushing into blind execution, which may bring dire and dangerous consequences.
Translated from the story: foolish barber