The Four Learned Fools

Panchtantra Stories

There were four young Brahmins, who were good friends and always eager to acquire knowledge. They joined a monastery in a place called Kanyakubj to study sciences and scriptures. After twelve long years of learning, the decided to return home and asked their teacher for his permission to leave the monastery. They thus, started a journey back to their hometown. After a few days of travel, they reached a point where the road forked. They were not sure which road would take them home. Then they saw a funeral procession. One of the boys opened his book of learning and read out "Follow the path taken by great men." The boy told his other friends, "Let us join and follow these great men leading the funeral procession."  They thus followed the procession to the cremation ground where they met a donkey.  The second Brahmin boy opened his book of shastras and found this verse in it:  "He who comes to your aid In times of danger, famine, Cremation and invasion Is truly a friend in deed." Then he told his friends that the donkey was, therefore, their best friend. At once one of them held on to the neck of the donkey. Another washed his feet. After this ceremony, they looked around and found a camel. The four of them began figuring out what the animal is. The third man opened his book of knowledge and read out, "What moves fast is righteousness" and decided that the camel must be the embodiment of righteousness.  The fourth man referred to his book and found that righteousness and friendship should always be together. They then tied the donkey and the camel together. Informed of this, the donkey’s owner rushed to beat the four Brahmins. But they escaped before he came. They continued to travel till they reached a river and found a big leaf floating over the water.  One of them saw it and, remembering a line from a verse describing how a leaf helped a man cross the river, jumped on it and was being carried down by the current. A second Brahmin saw his friend in distress and remembered a verse:  "When total loss stares in the face A wise man sacrifices half and Manages with what remains." So, with a view to save half of his friend, the second Brahmin cut off the head of the drowning man.  The remaining three resumed their travel only to stop when three villagers invited them for a feast. When the host served a dish resembling noodles to the first Brahmin, he thought "what is long should be discarded" and left the place without food.  The second man was served pancakes. He thought, "What spreads is not good for health" and refused to eat.  Doughnuts were served to the third Brahmin. He remembered that "There is peril where there is a hole" and left. The three Brahmins later went home.  Suvarnasiddhi ended the story and turned to Chakradhara and told him:  "Even if one is very learned If he is without common sense Becomes the butt of ridicule Like the learned in this story."  Chakradhara protested, "That is not true," and quoted this verse:  "What God chooses to save Survives sans human effort andNo human effort can save What God ordains to perish."  As the frog said, "the one with thousand tricks sat on the head of the fisherman, the one with hundred tricks is hanging by the fisherman’s arm and I with only one trick am happily swimming in the water."  "How is that?" asked Suvarnasiddhi. Chakradhara begins the story.