Kachin Education Centre

By Zung Ring,

Once upon a time, in a village, there were egotistical brothers. They respected no one. They were afraid of no one. They were ashamed of no one. Basically they didn’t care anyone.

There was also a pitiful orphan in the village. He grew up under the care of his grandfather. They were so poor. They lived in a small tent outskirt of the village. The poor child faced the arrogant brothers’ bully on daily basis.

One day, the villagers were to clear bushes along roads. Collective labors were required. But on that day, the orphan could not go. So, he gave a pork leg for lunch to villagers who came to provide their labors for his absence. However, the brothers threw the pork leg to sidewalk instead of making it lunch. In the evening, the poor child became the subject of ridicule to the brothers and returned the pork leg saying that the pork leg didn’t do anything just sitting on sidewalk the whole day. The pork was now dirty with dirt and the poor child was in the state of embarrassment and intimidation from the superior brothers and hesitated whether to take the pork back or not.

Not long after that, the brothers invited the orphan to a trip for trapping birds. The poor child agreed to join. When they arrived in forest, they spotted a big banyan tree with full of fruits which draw all kinds of birds and herbivores. The brothers immediately monopolized the whole tree. They laid their traps on all of the branches giving no opportunity to the poor child. The lonely child was left with no good option so he just disappointedly laid his traps beneath the tree.

On the next morning, the brothers got up early and returned to forest to check their traps before the orphan did. As they approached to the site, a deer was caught in the orphan’s trap that greatly disturbed the brothers. In their traps however, only a hornbill was caught. They now decided to switch the preys out of jealousy before the poor child arrive. When the poor child arrived, he was very shocked by very unusual scene - a deer was hung in the air while a hornbill was caught in his trap on the ground.

The poor child knew that the brothers have exchanged the preys and felt being bullied. He demanded to give him the deer back. The arrogant brothers laughed at him saying “don’t you see that the deer was caught in our trap? It is ours. We can’t give it to you.” The lonely child argued with them but he was overwhelmed by the brothers. Finally, the poor child proposed to bring their case to the village council and to let the council decide. The brothers were delighted by the proposal because they believed that the council would decide in their favor for they know all of elders. All the village elders have received gifts from the brothers at least once.

For the judging day in the council, there was no shortage of supporters for the brothers since they were powerful and wealthy. On the other hand, it was already challenging enough for the unfortunate orphan to find even a supporter. But he eventually managed to find a very old man in the outskirt of the village who seemed willing to support the child. No one noticed his existence in the village because he was also poor and a man of few words but was wise. The boy told him the whole story and requested him to support him in the council on ruling day. The wise man agreed.

The day had come. Now, the proud brothers and their supporters were waiting for the poor boy in the village council. As expected the council was filled with the brothers’ supporters. Everyone was trying to mock the deprived boy. Time was running late yet the boy has not arrived. Some of the elders began to get angry and proposed to declare the brothers winners in the absence of the poor boy. However, the brothers insisted to wait for the boy because they wanted to humiliate him in front of the whole villagers in the council.

At the same time, the unfortunate boy went to the old wise man’s home and was waiting for him the whole morning. The wise man did not say anything whether he changed his mind or not. The little boy was timid and dared not to push him or told it’s getting late. So, he chose to wait for the wise man until he’s ready. About at noon time, the wise man said to the boy, “Now let’s go”. The boy was of course delighted for he was worried the whole morning. The wise man deliberately chose to be late for the council for his strategic purpose.

As the wise man and poor boy were arriving to the council, they were ridiculed by the brothers’ supporters. Inside the council, the elders (councilors) also condemned the twos for being late. As the meeting proceeded, one of the elders provocatively asked the old man, “You are old but you seemed don’t know our tradition that we solved such kind of case in the morning? Why you came so late?” The old man replied wisely as the following.

“Honorable councilors, I am sorry for being late. Please receive my sincere apology. I know that we have a unique custom of judging cases like this one in the morning. I have no intention to ruin our beautiful tradition. However, I was late for good reason. On my way the council, I have crossed a river. As I was crossing, I saw wild fire on sand bank. Thus, I collected water with my bamboo basket to extinguish the fire. That’s why I was late.”

The old man was immediately booed. The councilors ridiculed him by saying how foolish is it for you to say that there was wild fire on sand bank and collect water with bamboo basket to extinguish the fire. The old man paused and gently replied.

“Honorable councilors, yes you are absolutely right about that. It is foolish to believe that there is wild fire on sand bank and collect water with bamboo basket to extinguish fire. Don’t you also think that it is foolish to believe that deer which has no wings was caught in the trap which was laid up in the air? And hornbill which doesn’t live on the ground was actually caught in the trap laid on the ground?”

The whole council was dead silence. After the brief silence, an audience from a corner broke the silence with claps. The silence was soon replaced with tumultuous standing ovation. The councilors and brothers now blushed at their own arrogance, ignorance and stupidity.

Without further arguments, the council delivered its just verdict that the poor orphan was the winner and deer was also returned.

The dishonest brothers left the council with great disappointment and embarrassment while the poor boy left with victorious joy.

Moral Lesson:

Justice prevails.