Panchatantra: The Useful Thief

A long time ago, there lived a trader in a small town. He was a middle-aged man, quite rich but a widower. He wanted to get married again but since he was not a young man anymore, no girl wanted to marry him.

After a long time, he finally got married to a young girl. This girl’s father was a poor man and the trader paid him a good sum of money to get his daughter married to him. This is how his wish of getting married finally materialised. But the girl was not at all happy with the marriage. She did not let her husband hug her or even come close to her. The trader was unhappy with his wife’s attitude.

One night, while the trader was sleeping alone in his room, his wife rushed to him and held him tightly in her arms. He noticed that she was trembling with fear. Just then, the trader saw a thief standing in the doorway. This made the whole thing clear to him. He said to the thief, “Friend, my wife never used to come close to me. But today, for fear of you, she has embraced me. I am grateful to you. You can take whatever you want to take from my house.”

The thief was surprised but he replied laughingly, “Sir, I don’t want to take anything from your house. But in future, if your wife does not want to come near you, I will surely come here.” Saying this, the thief went away.

From that day onwards, the trader’s wife was always loving and caring towards her husband.

The moral of this story is that sometimes, even a bad person might turn out to be useful in need.

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