The Four Learned Fools

In a certain place four brahmins were friends. From childhood they had had this in mind: "We should go abroad and acquire learning."

So one day they resolved on it and went to a school at Kanyakubja and studied. After twelve years of single-minded study they were skilled in every branch of learning.

Then the four agreed: "We have mastered it all; let us take our teacher's leave and go home." They pleased their teacher, took his permission, picked up their books and set out.

Some way along they came to a place where two roads met. They all sat down and said: "Which road shall we take?"

Just then a merchant's son in that town had died, and a very great crowd was going out for the cremation. So one of them opened a book and read: "The road by which the great crowd goes — that is the road." And they went along with the crowd.

They reached the cremation ground, and there they saw a donkey. Then the second opened a book and read: "He who stands with you at festival, in calamity, in famine, in trouble with enemies, at the king's gate and at the cremation ground — he is a kinsman."

"Then this is our kinsman!" — one threw his arms round the donkey's neck, and another washed its feet.

Meanwhile they saw a camel and asked: "What is this?" The third opened a book and read: "The pace of righteousness is swift" — "then this is righteousness." And the fourth said: "One should join what one desires to righteousness." — So they tied the donkey by the neck to the camel.

Someone reported this to the washerman who owned the donkey; and when he came running with a stick, all four fled.

Going on some distance, a river came in front of them. In the middle of the water they saw a palasha leaf drifting. One pandit said: "What has come before us will carry us across" — and he jumped onto that leaf, fell into the water, and was swept away.

Then a second pandit caught him by the hair and said: "When total ruin is at hand, a wise man gives up half and works with the rest, for total ruin is unbearable" — and he cut off his head.

The three went on and came to a village. The villagers invited them and took them to their separate houses.

One was given a dish of vermicelli. Looking at it, the pandit said: "He who is long-drawn-out is destroyed" — and he left the food and walked out.

The second was given rice-gruel. He said: "What is spread out too far does not last long" — and he too left the food and went.

The third was given a ring-cake with a hole in it. He said: "In holes, misfortunes multiply" — and he gave that up as well.

So the three of them, hungry and the laughing-stock of everyone, went back to their own homes.

अपि शास्त्रेषु कुशलाः लोकाचारविवर्जिताः । सर्वे ते हास्यतां यान्ति यथा ते मूर्खपण्डिताः ॥

Moral: However skilled in the texts, those who know nothing of how the world works all end as laughing-stocks — like those learned fools.

From the Panchatantra, Book V — Ill-Considered Action.