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101 RUINED BY GREED
Two merchant brothers in a certain village were in dire poverty. They decided to try their luck in Saurastra where they went for trade. They indeed earned a great deal of money. They secured it in a bag. When they decided to go back home, they carried the bag by turn. When one held it, the other thought of killing him and getting all the wealth for himself. But actually, no body had the courage to commit the murder. This is how they reached their village. When they rested on the bank of the river outside their village, the younger brother was filled with so much of remorse that he burst into tears and the other brother asked him what the matter was. The younger one confessed that he had often entertained thoughts of murdering him and the elder one also admitted that he too had similar ideas. They both saw that the bag of money was the cause of the evil in their mind. They decided to throw it in the river and went home. The bag was swallowed up by a big fish which was caught by a fisherman and brought to the market for sale. The mother of the two merchants who wanted to celebrate the home coming of her sons, sent her daughter to the market to buy fish. She got the same fish. The cook who cut the fish saw the purse and tried to hide it. The old woman noticed it and questioned her. The two came to blows and the cook hit the old woman hard at the vitals and she died instantaneously. The two brothers saw the purse by the side of the dead mother. They understood that their greed for wealth was in fact the cause of all this calamity,
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