Story of Validad
Once there lived a poor carpenter called Validad in his small hut. He was living alone and had no kith and kin. He worked hard all the day and was accepting only reasonable money for that. Since he was spending very little and saving the rest, his money box was full with coins after some time.
He wanted to spend his money fully and went to a gold merchant.
"Please give me some ornament equivalent to the value of the whole coins in my box" Validad said to the merchant.
The gold merchant gave him a beautiful golden bangle and Validad liked it also. But he thought that he didn't have any use of it. At that time a cloth merchant came there on his horse.
"Where are you going to" asked Validad
" I am going to the palace to sell some silk clothes to the princess" said the cloth merchant.
"Dear friend, please give this golden bangle to the princess and tell her that it is a gift from Validad"
The cloth merchant gave that gift to the princess and she liked it very much. In return she sent some very costly silk clothes to Validad.
" What I will do this costly silk clothes?" Validad asked the merchant when he got the gift from princess.
" You can gift this to somebody" said the merchant
"to whom ? Because this is very costly and only kings wear such clothes" said Validad
"I am going to the sultan of nearby province. I can give it to him" said the merchant
"Okay, please give it to him and tell that it is a gift from Validad"
Sultan was so happy to get the precious silk clothes. In return he sent six majestic horses to Validad through the merchant.
Validad gifted those horses to the princess again. She wondered who this Validad was.
Princess ordered " Let Validad know that we too know how to give gifts. Send twenty big boxes of silver to him on twenty donkeys."
When Validad got the valuable gift from princess she sent it to the sultan. Sultan wondered who this wealthy person would be and in return he sent twenty carts full of diamonds and gold to Validad.
Validad gifted all those diamonds and gold to the princess. This time princess really surprised and wanted to know who this Validad was. She set out to visit Validad. When she reached the hut of Validad the sultan also was there who came there to visit Validad. They knew about the poor hardworking Validad.
Both the sultan and princess liked each other and married. They asked Validad to stay with them in the Palace which Validad humbly refused. Then they sent a lot of money and gifts to Validad to him. Seeing the soldiers coming with big gift boxes Validad fled away from that country.
This is an Indian tale.
Is there any person like Validad in the Earth who doesn't have even a grain of interest in wealth and money? The majority is running after wealth, money and power. They are not satisfied with the wealth and money they amassed and they struggle to amass more and reluctant to share it with others.
We need reasonable wealth and money to live in this earth comfortably. Apart from that if the very purpose of life itself is amassing wealth and money our life will be a disaster.
In many wealthy families even brothers and sisters fight each other just for money.
If at all we are not becoming like Validad, at least let us not be influenced by the power of money.
Money is not the destiny.
It is like 'pea nuts' to eat while we travel the great journey of our life
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