All for a loincloth
A hermit lived in a little hut on the bank of a river. His only possession was a loincloth.
Every day after his morning dip in the river he would hang his loincloth out to dry.
One afternoon he found that a rat had made a hole in the loincloth.
The next day the rat made another hole in it. The hermit went to the village and brought a cat. The rat fled.
But now the hermit had to feed the cat and so whenever he went to the village to beg for food he would beg for milk too.
The people gave willingly but the hermit knew they could not really afford to give him milk every day. He decided to get a cow.
A rich man gave him one. Now the hermit did not have to beg for milk but he needed fodder for the cow. So he began to beg for fodder.
One day he thought, "Why not till the land around the hut? Then I won’t have to beg for fodder." So he began to till the land.
The yield was so great he had to hire labourers to help him. Then he thought, "I spend all my time supervising the labour. If I had a wife she could help me in this task." So he married. And had children. In course of time he became a wealthy landowner.
One day a man asked him why he had given up his simple life to become a landowner and a householder.
He said, "It was the only way I could keep my loincloth," said the former hermit sadly.
