The Queen's Necklace
Once upon a time there was a very powerful king who had an equally qualified son. He got the prince married to an extremely beautiful princess. On the day of the marriage, the prince presented a diamond necklace worth Rs. 2 crores to his wife as a gesture of his love for her. The young queen loved this necklace very much and she would always wear it around her beautiful neck.
One day when she was dressing up, she had kept the necklace on the windowsill. Suddenly, a crow appeared on the scene and flew away with the necklace. Crying and crying she requested the prince, “I will not accept a necklace worth Rs. 10 crores in exchange for that necklace. I am very much attached to that particular necklace because you gave it to me on our marriage day. If you do not get me the necklace I will drown myself and die!”
The prince pronounced a reward, “ Anyone who brings back the queens necklace will be given a prize of Rs. 10 crores.” Everyone in the kingdom became excited and wanted to get the prize.
One day, a young man saw a bright object that looked like the queen’s necklace in a small pond of water. He became very excited and entered the pond to retrieve the necklace. Soon he realized “Alas, Alas, there is quick sand beneath the water and I’m being sucked in!” As he was about to get his hands to the necklace floating on the surface of the water, the necklace moved further away!! At the same time he was being sucked in the quick sand. Somehow he dragged himself out of the pond and was happy to escape alive.
He kept trying to retrieve the necklace from morning till late evening. Every time he tried to get the necklace, it would flow further way from him and the quick sand would try to drown him. Luckily a sage came along that road. Although the boy was trying to hide it, the saintly person understood and asked this young lad, You look tired. It seems that you have been working hard since morning.” The boy replied, No, No, I’m not doing anything here. I have just come here for sight-seeing and there is nothing interesting on the surface of this pond!” The sage could easily recognize the boy’s plight and promised, “My dear child, I want to help you. I don’t want anything from you. Tell me what is your problem?” The boy pointed at the shining necklace and revealed his problem, “Every time I enter the pond, mysteriously the necklace moves away by the waves and because of the quicksand I cannot remain in the water for a long time to get the necklace.”
The intelligent sage replied, “My dear son, you are searching for the right thing but in the wrong place. Just look up! The necklace is actually hanging from the branch of the tree where the crow left it and you were only trying to catch it’s reflection, so you could never get it!!
What can we learn from this story?
If we run in a wrong direction to reach our goals no matter how hard we work it will move away from us. Hence we must always take help of someone more intelligent and experienced to ensure that we are on right track.
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