The day dreaming priest

The day dreaming priest

  

Long time ago there lived a priest who was

extremely lazy and poor at the same time. He

did not want to do any hard work but used to

dream of being rich one day.

He got his food

by begging for alms. One morning he got a pot

of milk as part of the alms. He was extremely

delighted and went home with the pot of milk.

He boiled the milk, drank some of it and put

the remaining milk in a pot.

He added slight

curds in the pot for converting the milk to

curd. He then lay down to sleep.

Soon he started imagining about the pot of

curd while he lay asleep. He dreamt that if he

could become rich somehow all his miseries

would be gone. His thoughts turned to the pot

of milk he had set to form curd.

He dreamt on;

"By morning the pot of milk would set, it

would be converted to curd. I would churn the

curd and make butter from it. I would heat the

butter and make ghee out of it.

I will then go

to that market and sell that ghee, and make

some money. With that money i will buy a hen.

The hen will lay may eggs which will hatch

and there will be many chicken.

These chicken

will in turn lay hundreds of eggs and I will

soon have a poultry farm of my own." He kept

on imagining.

"I will sell all the hens of my poultry and buy

some cows, and open a milk dairy. All the

town people will buy milk from me. I will be

very rich and soon I shall buy jewels.

The king

will buy all the jewels from me. I will be so

rich that I will be able to marry an

exceptionally beautiful girl from a rich family.

Soon I will have a handsome son.

If he does

any mischief I will be very angry and to teach

him a lesson, I will hit him with a big

stick."

During this dream, he involuntarily

picked up the stick next to his bed and thinking

that he was beating his son, raised the stick

and hit the pot. The pot of milk broke and he

awoke from his day dream.

Story moral: There is no substitute for hard

work. Dreams cannot be fulfilled without hard

work.