A Bengal tiger in India.
Photograph by Paul Mannix (2009).
The Dullard
Many years ago, there once was group of three brahmans. They had each lived in the forest for seven years. During those seven years, they had become knowledgeable in matters related to karma, to dharma, and to all of the underlying truths of life.
Although these three brahmans had lived together for seven years, one of them had always remained an outsider. They called him “the dullard.” They had only let him into their group because they pitied him. They thought him incredibly dull.
One day, the brahman agreed that it was time to leave the forest. They had learned a great deal during their isolation. They thought they could make great use of it by buying and selling goods. They could become some of the wealthiest merchants in the kingdom and, perhaps, gain positions in the king’s court.
Of course, the smarter two didn’t think the dullard would amount to much. Even so, they let him go. It would certainly be funny to see him prove a terrible merchant. In all likelihood, he would lose all that he had within a week.
The three brahmans packed up their few belongings and headed out of the forest. Along the way, they came across a skeleton. The wisest brahman looked closely at the skeleton.
“Why, this is the skeleton of a tiger!”
“How odd,” said the second wisest brahman. “You know what we should do?”
“What?”
“We should bring it back to life. We’ve learned so much in our seven years in the forest. We should able to do that.”
“That sounds a good idea,” said the wisest brahman.
But the dullard disagreed. He said to the two other brahman, “It’s a tiger! If we bring it back to life, it’ll eat all of us!”
The other brahmans laughed at him. “Why would it eat us? Wouldn’t it know a brahman when it saw one? We all know that tigers don’t eat brahmans.”
At this, the wisest brahman used his powers to put muscle and skin back on the tiger’s bones. Then, the second wisest brahman breathed into its mouth in order to restore it to life.
“Ah,” he said. “We are able to bring the dead back to life! Forget being merchants. With those power, we could become kings over all of India!”
Before the brahman could finish his sentence, the tiger leapt at him. The beast tore at him with her claws and soon he was just a bloody pile. The dullard leapt into a tree, where he hoped the tiger wouldn’t be able to get him. Meanwhile, the wisest brahman was trying to calm down the tiger.
“We have brought you back to life, oh tiger! Surely you should be thanking us, not eating us!”
The tiger attacked this brahman too and made a meal of him. The dullard remained in his tree until the tiger had gone away.
Moral: A man with wisdom but no common sense is like a palace with art but no furniture.
Author’s Note
In this story, I adapted a tale told in an Amar Chitra Katha comic book, “The Dullard.” In this tale, a group of wandering brahman bring a lion back to life, only to have it attack them. The dullard of the group is the only one who survives. He warned them, but they didn’t listen. My story is a pretty close adaptations of the original. I may eventually add another passage or a sequel about how the dullard came to be one of the most revered men in the kingdom.
Bibliography
The Dullard. Amar Chitra Katha, v. 585.
