Short Story of Greedy Merchant
The kingdom of Magadha was ruled by Bhupala, a generous king. He loved art and beauty. He had the habit of collecting beautiful pieces of art. Be it an expensive painting or a simple earthern pot, it only had to appear beautiful to his eyes.
If anybody gifted him any thing beautiful, he expressed his joy by giving away whatever they asked for.
Many artists and business men enjoyed the patronage of the king by satisfying his thirst for beauty and art.
In that kingdom, there lived a greedy merchant named Virat. He was a rich man whose business flourished within a short time making him one of the richest persons in that kingdom.
He still wanted more money and always searched for various means of earning easy money.
Once, Virat visited a neighbouring kingdom on some business work. There, he saw some beautiful pieces of art. Reminded of the king’s liking for beauty, he made a clever plan
and bought a few gifts for the king.
Alter returning to the kingdom, he went along with all that he bought and presented them to the King.
The King was amazed at seeing such beautiful and valuable gifts. Asusual, the king asked Virat, what he wanted in return. Waiting eagerly for the opportunity, Virat immediately replied, “Oh king! Please give me all the land I can cover in one day.” The
king was slightly surprised by Virat’s unusual desire but agreed to his request.
The king said, “Please go to the market and start walking from there. Go wherever you want to till the evening but before the slip sets, you have to reach the place from where you started to walk.
If this is acceptable to you, you may proceed. I shall give you all the land, thus covered by you.”
Virat agreed to the king’s condition and told him that he would start walking the following day.
All through the night, the greedy merchant thought of various places in the king-dom he could own, by covering them. He was elated that he would soon become the richest man in the kingdom and dreamt of valuable treasures.
Next day morning, Virat woke up very early and reached the market. He wanted to coyer as much distance as possible. Instead of walking, he started running.
He made a note of all the places he wanted to own and accordingly he went running to all those places. Though he was hungry and tired, he had not stopped anywhere to rest because of the fear that he might miss out on some extra land.
He ran as fast he could all through the day and finally reached the market by Sunset. Exhausted and worn out, he stopped at the same place where he started running.
Before he could actually calculate how much land he owned, he fell on to the ground and instantaneously died out of exhaustion.
The people, who gathered there, commented that the greedy man had lost his life in order to gel some piece of land. At the cost of Virat’s life, others learnt a lesson that nothing is greater than life.