|| An Indian folktale ||
Once upon a time there lived a wealthy merchant Bikram who had a pet dog. The dog was mute, but he was devoted to his master. His master took care of him as a family member too.
Due to a bad season, Bikram was suddenly reduced to poverty. He hardly had enough for himself and his family, let alone the dog.
Even though he liked his dog a lot, he had to part with him. He got a loan of five thousand rupees from another merchant, Ishwar, leaving the dog as a pledge.
Ishwar was initially not happy with the pledge.
“Five thousand rupees for a dog! Who knows if he will even repay! I can’t even sell the dog to get back the amount. I can’t get five thousand for a cow and calf, let alone a mute dog”, he thought.
Five thousand rupees was indeed a lot of money those days. But Bikram convinced him that he would repay.
Ishwar finally agreed and gave Bikram the entire sum he had asked for and kept the dog. With the money Bikram began business again, hoping to repay and get his dog back.
Not long after this, Ishwar’s shop was broken into by thieves and completely sacked. There was hardly ten rupees’ worth of stuff left in the place. The place was wiped clean.
The faithful dog, could not bark, since he was mute. But he however, knew what was going on, smelled and followed the thieves, and saw where they deposited the things, and then returned.
In the morning everyone was lamenting in the merchant’s house, the women were weeping and the neighbours had gathered feeling sorry for Ishwar. The merchant himself nearly went mad. He had lost everything! What would he do now!
Meanwhile the dog kept on running to the door, and pulling at his Ishwar’s shirt and pajamas, as though wishing him to go outside.
Ishwar ignored him and bellowed at the dog, “You stupid dumb dog. What do you want now? You couldn’t even do the one thing that you had to do!”
At last a friend suggested that, perhaps, the dog knew something of the what happened, and advised the merchant to follow it. The merchant consented, and went after the dog right up to the banyan tree where the thieves had hidden the goods. Here the animal dug the ground, scraped and barked, and indicating that something was buried underneath.
So the merchant and his friends dug about the place, and soon came upon all the stolen property. Nothing was missing. The thieves did not have much time to transport the items. There was everything just as the thieves had taken them.
The merchant was very glad. On returning to his house, he at once sent the dog back to Bikram, his old master, with a letter rolled under the collar.
In the letter, he had written about the loyalty and cleverness of the beast, and told him that his loan as repaid in full and to come to him for help in the future whenever he needed.
When Bikram saw his dog coming back again, he thought, ‘Alas! Ishwar wants the money back. How can I pay him? I have not had sufficient time to recover myself from my recent losses. My family will starve. My children and I will have no option but to beg. That can’t happen! I will kill the dog when he reaches the threshold, and say that a wolf must have killed it. Thus there will be an end of my debt.’ No dog, no loan.
Accordingly he ran out and killed the poor dog, when the letter fell out of its collar. The merchant picked it up and read it. How great was his grief and disappointment when he read the letter. He beat his head and vowed to never ever act in haste again.
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