An Equal Share

An Equal Share

Once in a village named Kunoor, there lived two brothers Ramu and Somu. They inherited their father’s wealth. Ramu and Somu shared their father's house, land and all properties. Two things were left. One is a thick wool blanket and other one is a cow. Ramu and Somu wondered how to share them equally. 

Ramu said to Somu, “I am your elder brother. I will do whatever is good for us both. Will you accept my decision?” Somu is an innocent person. He said to Ramu, "Ok brother, I will accept your decision on sharing the cow and the blanket". Ramu said, “I will take the back portion of cow and you take the front portion of the cow. For the blanket, I will use it on night and you use it in the morning. Can we agree on this?” Somu agreed without even thinking for a second.

 Somu fed the cow with grass as the front portion belonged to him. He could not use the blanket to cover him since it made him to sweat a lot in the day time. In the evening, Ramu milked the cow and took all the milk for him. Also, he got the blanket from Somu and took it to sleep. Somu was not able to get even a small cup of milk to drink. He did not have blanket to cover him and he slept in cold. Next day, he told Ramu about this. Ramu replied, "You have agreed to my decision. Now we cannot change anything." 

A week passed. Somu felt helpless. He visited his father's friend. He advised Somu to do some things to change Ramu's decision. Somu agreed to follow his advice and returned back to home. For the following two days, Somu did not feed the cow and the cow became very tired and week. 

When Ramu milked the cow, he could not get a drop of milk. He realized that Somu has not fed the cow, he became angry. Ramu asked Somu, “Why you did not feed the cow?". Somu replied, “It is my front portion, I will feed or I won't, that's my choice!". 

When Ramu asked him the blanket, Somu handed him the wet blanket. Ramu angrily asked “Why the blanket is so wet?". Somu replied, “It belongs to me in the day time, so I soaked it in water. I have agreed to your decision and there is no need to change anything".

 Ramu understood that Somu was demanding equal and fair share of them. Ramu apologized to Somu for being cunning to him and agreed to share the cow and the blanket equally. The brothers took care of the cow together and got the milk and shared it. They used the blanket at night. Ramu and Somu lived together happily.

Moral: Greed can result in loss of what you have. 

Home