Grasp All Lose All
retelling by Sonal Patni
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The little
girls loved to hear Annabelle’s stories and all sprung up in their beds
to hear this tale. Ms Clare's story made the girls more eager to here
this on. It was afterall a treat for them to hear two stories in the
same night. Even the girls that were tired listened attentively
as Annabelle began.
"There once was a poor man who was a very hard worker. He barely made
enough money to feed his family, and felt really bad about it. He knew
that if he advertised his store that people would come, and his
business would prosper. He went to a banker who agreed to lend him some
money. The poor man began to send out flyers immediately after he got
the money. Unfortunately there were too many loyal customers in this
town, and he was unable to make that much money.
The banker became frustrated and would beat the poor man up every night
after work. To make matters worse, the banker would show up at the poor
man’s house before supper, and after he left, the family was to upset
too eat. This went on for days, which became weeks, which became
months.
One day the poor man felt that this banker was hurting his poor family
too much and decided to run away. After he left work, he turned down
the side street rather than heading straight home. He came across a
beautiful mango tree and decided that he should rest here before
beginning his journey tomorrow. He climbed up into the tree and rested
on one of its large branches.
When the poor
man woke, he found that he was not in his old town anymore. He looked
out and saw tiny flickering lights that shined and shimmered. A few
floated close to him and he grabbed 4 of them. Examining these, he
found that they were the most beautiful stones he had ever seen. He put
them in his pocket, and the tree began to float back again. He was very
thankful to the tree for the stones and his safe return home.
The poor man was so happy because he thought that he could pay off his
debt. When the banker returned to the poor man’s house, he was welcomed
in. The poor man showed him the stones and said it was all he had to
offer. The banker was overcome with joy as he admired the rubies. He
did not show this excitement as he accepted the rubies.
The banker now had no idea what to do with these expensive stones. If
the rajah was to find these stones, the rajah might think he stole them
and kill him! The banker sold these stones to a good friend of his for
10,000 rupees, an amount four times greater then the debt the poor man
paid off. The friend in turn sold them to the rajah for two villages.
There was a problem, however, because the queen wanted eight more of
these rubies to make a necklace. “I will kill myself if I do not have
this necklace!!” she proclaimed. The rajah summoned the banker’s friend
and ordered him to find more rubies, or face death! The friend went to
the banker, and then they went to meet the poor man. The poor man told
them how to get the gems, but the men and the rajah did not believe
them. They had never seen such a tree in the village. The poor man said
that every quarter of a moon he believed it would appear as it did on
the evening.
As the poor man said, the tree was there on the following quarter moon
night and the four gentlemen climbed upon it. As it arrived to that
strange place, the men marveled at the gems. Each had his own greed to
think about.
The poor man thought that if he took more this time, he could be rich.
The banker thought of how he could make 40 times as much money if he
were to gather more rubies. His friend thought that if 4rubies could
buy him a few villages, that gathering all of these rubies would allow
him to be his own rajah. The rajah thought 20 necklaces would be much
better than 1 and would equal more power. The men then separated and
began to fill their bags.
Back at the village the sun had brought in a new day and the servants
went to wake the rajah. They found that he was not back from his trip
and went to find him. After visiting the banker’s house, his friend’s
house, and the poor man’s house, the servants found that none of the
men were there.
To this day when people let their greed get the best of them the people
of that village say “All he has lost.”
Ms Clare thanked Annabelle for her story and tucked the girls in to
bed. A little after she left Shelly got out of bed and grabbed a few of
her dolls. She placed some by the girls who had no dolls. Annabelle
woke to the sound of footsteps and asked her what she was doing. Shelly
got into bed, smiled at Annabelle and said “I guess all the stuff about
spirits isn’t so crazy.”
With that the girls went to bed.
Bibliography:
Story Title:
Grasp All Lose All
Story
Websource:
http://www.mythfolklore.net/andrewlang/345.htm
Book Title:
Andrew Lang’s Fairy Books (The Olive Fairy Book)
Author:
Andrew Lang
Year: 1907
Image:
Title:
Holy Cow and Mango Tree
Story
Websource:http://www.indigoarts.com/gallery_mithila2.html
Artist:
Punam Kaln
Author's
Note:
This story was
a little long and so I had to cut it down a little. I did not give the
characters any names, and omitted extra characters which made the story
easier to follow. This story fits into my theme as it has both the
mysticism and teaching which are prevalent in Asian literature. Karma
can be found in this story as well. Advocates of karma believe that
karma brings justice to those who have none. In the story the poor man
is treated unfairly, but received justice when the spirits carried his
tree away. I think that it was important for me to include this story
in my collection because of its memorable plot. At the start you see
the
poor man being treated unfairly, and then later, after he is rewarded,
he shifts into a greedy person. I think it was important to show how
one becomes greedy, and what comes of the greed.
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