Source: BPI India

Once upon a time in the city of Patna, there lived athief whose name was Kalu. He often used to roam in the city at night to steal from people’s houses. One night, he was passing by a house which was locked for several days. He curiously peeped through the window of the house and saw a small lamp glowing inside. He felt alarmed that somebody was inside. He waited for several minutes, but nobody came out.

Kalu again tried to look inside and saw a cot and two cupboards in the room. He silently twisted the window grills and managed to enter the house. Few pieces of gold were lying scattered on the floor. Kalu felt very delighted and lucky. He thanked God and thought, “There is so much gold in this house! If I take all of it today, I will never need to steal anymore.”

Kalu hurriedly started picking up the pieces of gold in his cloth bag. But, just when Kalu finished collecting all the gold, more gold pieces appeared on the floor. He again

started collecting them greedily. In that way, whenever e Kalu filled his bag with all the gold pieces and wanted to e leave the house, more gold appeared on the same floor.  He decided to stay back that night and collect more goldevery time it appeared.

The next morning, he wanted to get out of the house but felt afraid of being seen by someone. He was very scared and thought, “It’s morning now! If someone sees me with this gold in my bag, then I would get arrested and be killed for sure. I cannot even run now. Let me hide and stay inside this house till tonight. I would leave the houseafter sunset.”

After some time, a sadhu opened the door and enteredthe house. He found a bundle lying on the floor. Thesadhu thought, “Who has left this bundle? Who came to the house when I was away?” He quickly opened the bag and found it full of ash. Kalu also saw this from behind the cupboard.

“But, how could the gold pieces in my bag turn into ash? I had myself picked them and filled the bag!” wondered Kalu. After sometime, when the sadhu was leaving the house, Kalu appeared before him. As he was very curious to know the fact, he said, “Maharaj, I am a thief. I entered your house last night to steal something. I saw the gold pieces lying on the floor. I collected those pieces in my bag. The bundle which you opened is mine, but now it is filled with ash. I do not understand how the gold pieces have changed into ash! Please explain.” The sadhu said, “This house has divine influence. Every night, the earthen lamp glows and the gold pieces are scattered on the floor. But, when those gold pieces are collected, they change to ash. God has brought you to this house so that you learn a lesson. Greed is never a good habit. You must leave the bad habit of stealing.” Kalu touched the sadhu’s feet and promised to leave his profession of stealing forever.

Moral: It is never too late to change your bad habits.