________________
330
perhaps in a day or two she would give birth to a son. All this was baffling to his friend. But what was more baffling was what happened to them when they reached the village which they had to visit as per instructions of their teacher. Outside the village was a big lake and the queen had set up her camp there for a while. As they came near the camp, a maid servant of the queen came up to the two students and greeted them with the happy news that a son was born to the king. The clever student also observed that the elephant on which the queen had come to the camp was indeed a female and she was blind in one eve as he had already tol friend.
The two students rested for a while under a banyan tree. An old woman carrying a pitcher of water on her head came to them. She had made up her mind that these two were learned men and would surely enlighten her about her son, who had gone now quite for some time on a long journey. As she asked them a question, it was with a slight bow of her head with the result that the pitcher on her head fell to the ground and was broken into pieces. The duller of the two students immediately concluded that the breaking of the
er indicated a calamity to the son but the cleverer one disagreed. He told his friend not to jump to immature conclusions and told the woman that her son had already come home. "GO home, dear old mother, and meet your son." The old woman felt greatly relieved of her anxiety at this pleasant news. She pronounced a thousand blessings on the disciples and rushed away home. She indeed met her son who had just returned, he had no time even to wash his hands and feet. The happy mother told him of the fortune-tellers that she had met on the road and they both took a few presents for the young men who had studied the science of signs so well.
The other student however felt terribly resentful that the teacher had not taught him all that he had taught this other fellow.
When the two of them came back to the teacher, the one greeted him with great reverence whereas the other fretted and fumed with jealousy and did not conceal his resentment against the teacher. The teacher asked him why he forgot to greet him with the usual formalities. He replied that they were all done properly by the
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
