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Children's Corner - Stories - Common Sense

Four friends lived in a city. Three of them were very learned in all sciences but had no common sense. The fourth boy named Subuddhi was not well-versed in scriptures or sciences but had a fund of common sense. One day all of them thought that there was no use of their learning unless it brought them money to live happily. Therefore, they decided to go out and seek the patronage of kings. They set out to meet patrons of learning.

On the way, the eldest of them pointing out to the fourth man told the others, “Friends, this fellow is an unlettered fool. He 
has common sense and nothing else. I am not going to share my earnings with this fellow. Let him go home.” The second man also supported the eldest boy's suggestion.

But the third boy said, “Friends, it is not proper to send him back. We played together and he is one of us. Let us share our gains with him because elders have said: “He who has a narrow mind thinks this is mine, this is his. To a large-hearted person the whole world is his family.” In the end, the other two agreed with the third boy's suggestion and let the common sense man accompany them.

The first man said, “Okay, I will use my learning to assemble the bones into a skeleton.” With the power of learning he ordered all the bones to come together and become a skeleton.

When the skeleton was ready, the second man commanded flesh and blood to fill the skeleton and skin to cover it. When the third man was about to bring life to the body, Subuddhi (fourth man), who had only common sense, warned him, “Look, this animal is a lion. If it comes to life, he will kill all of us.” 

The man who was to put life into the body of the animal told Subuddhi, “You are a fool. Do you think I will lose this opportunity to test my learning.”

Subuddhi then told him to wait so that he could climb up a tree for safety and went up a tree. When the first man gave him life, the lion came alive and killed all the three learned men.

At last, common sense of Subuddhi turned out to be superior.

 

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