Even those who pretend to be good people turn out to be good people in real | short story length
Once a thief entered the palace of the king to steal. At that time he saw that the king was talking to his guru.
He secretly listened to what they were talking about. The king looked at his guru and said, “Guruji, my daughter isn’t married for a long time and it is causing me great pain.”
Immediately the guru looked at the king and said, “O king, don’t worry, when the day dawns, send your guards to the river bank on the border of our town, where many monks are doing penance.
They are very good people who do not commit any sin. One of them is a suitable husband for your daughter.” The thief, who was listening to this from the closet, had an idea.
“If we go and sit like hermits on the bank of the river, the guards will take us to the king. The king will give me his daughter in marriage, as his guru told him.
I will become the owner of the king’s palace and property. Then he thought, “I will leave this thieving business, if it happened so.”
As the day dawned, the king sent some guards to the river bank and told him to bring a monk there to marry his daughter.
The guards also went to the river bank on the king’s order and told each of the monks that the king had asked them to bring one of the monk to marry the king’s daughter.
Those ascetics who renounced all blessings and did penance to join the Lord did not accept the request of the guards. The guards eventually came to the thief dressed as a monk and said, “Swami, you are the last monk to show us grace.
Our king has decided to give his daughter in marriage to one of the monks here. We have asked all the monks here. No one seems to be coming, but you should come with us and marry our princess.”
On hearing this, the thief, disguised as a monk, thought for a while. All the saints here are real saints and good people and that is why they do not accept the guards’ requests.
He thought in his mind that, “if we agreed immediately, the king would be suspicious of us. At this time he was silent, as if he thought that we too should be like true saints”.
The guard begged and asked for a long time, but the thief from the monk’s disguise remained silent. Then the guards went back to the palace and said to the king, “O king, we have told all the monks who were doing penance on the banks of the river what you have ordered us.
Not a single one accepted our request. A monk who sits alone is silent without saying anything”. “Perhaps if you go directly and call him, he will come.”
The king left immediately to the river bank. The king looked at the thief who acted as a monk and said, “Swami, please marry my daughter.” Hearing what the king said, the thief in the guise of a monk thought for a moment.
“What would a true saint do in this situation?” he thought. He knew that a true ascetic would remain silent without saying anything.
He too remained silent. The king promised him to give half of his land if he married his daughter. Even then the thief remained silent like a true ascetic.
At last the king said, “Swami, I have found you to be a true and good saint since you refused to come with me, even after saying that I will give you my daughter and my whole country.
It is a great sin that I have invited someone like you to my home life” and bowed down to the thief in the guise of a monk.
Seeing this, the ascetic thief began to think deeply. “I’m not a true or good saint, but I’m masquerading as a good saint. If this disguise gets so much value, then if we become a real, good saint, I will get more value and honour than this.”
Why shouldn’t I become a real ascetic?” Thinking that the thief became a real good ascetic from that day on.
Moral : Even those who pretend to be good people turn out to be good people in the end. If we are truly good, we have added value. So we should be good.