Once, in a small village, there lived a poor Brahmin. He was very learned, but did nothing all day. He lived on the alms the villagers gave him every day.

One day, as usual, the Brahmin got up in the morning, performed his morning rituals and set out to beg for alms. As he went from door to door, people gave him several things. Some gave dal. Others gave him rice and yet others gave him vegetables. But one generous lady gave the Brahmin a large measure of flour.

"Ah! What good luck. I will not have to beg for alms for a long time," thought the Brahmin to himself.

He went home and cooked his lunch. After he had eaten, the Brahmin put the flour into a large mud pot and hung it near his bed. "Now, it will be safe from rats," he said to himself as he lay down in his cot for an afternoon nap.

He began to think, "I will save this flour until there is a famine. Then I will sell it at a very good price. With that, I will buy a pair of goats. Very soon, I will have a large flock of goats. With their milk, I will make more money. Then I will buy a cow and a bull. Very soon I will also have a large herd of cows. Their milk will fetch me a lot of money. I will become very wealthy. I will build for myself, a huge palace and get married to a beautiful woman... Then we will have a little son. I will be a proud father. In a few months my son will start crawling. He will be mischievous and I will be very worried that he may come to some harm. 1 will call out to my wife to take care of him. But she will be busy with house work and will ignore my call. I will get so angry. I will kick her to teach her a lesson like this..."

The Brahmin threw out his leg up. His foot hit the pot of flour hanging overhead and it came down with a resounding crash, spilling the flour all over the dirty floor. The lazy Brahmin realised that his foolishness and vanity had cost him a precious measure of flour. The laziness and foolishness taught him a lesson. Thereafter he lived an active life which took to heights.