Motivational Story
God’s Calculation…
Two friends, on a pilgrimage, reached a village temple by evening. Since it was already getting dark, they decided to spend the night in the temple.
Soon it started raining. They decided to finish dinner and was about to open their food packets.
Just then a stranger came running and took shelter in the temple. He appeared to be hungry and exhausted. Out of pity, the two friends decided to share their food with him, and the stranger happily agreed.
They opened their food packets and saw that the first friend had 3 rotis with him and the second had 5 rotis. How to divide 8 rotis among 3 persons?
The stranger suggested a simple solution. He asked the two friends to divide each roti into 3 pieces. The resulting 24 pieces were to be shared equally among them – 8 pieces each. The two friends readily accepted. They all finished dinner and slept.
Next morning the stranger said, ‘Thank you for your kindness yesterday. I am now leaving. As a token of my gratitude, please accept this.” He gave them 8 gold coins and left.
The second friend who had 5 rotis in his food packet said, ‘I gave 5 rotis, so I will take 5 gold coins. You gave 3 rotis, so you take 3.” The first friend did not agree. “I gave whatever I had. If I had more rotis, I also would have given more. So, let us share the coins equally – 4 each.”
An argument started and they could not resolve it. So, they went to the village head and explained the problem and asked him to give them justice. The village head was equally convinced by both sides of the argument, and could not come to any decision. He asked them to give him one more day to think.
That night he prayed to the God to suggest him a solution, and slept. In the night, God appeared in his dream and said, “the first friend who had 3 rotis should get one coin, and the other one who had 5 rotis should get 7 coins.”.
The village head was perplexed and begged God to explain. The God said, “the 3 rotis of the first friend were divided into 9 parts; he ate 8 parts and gave 1 part. The 5 rotis of the second friend were divided into 15 parts; he ate 8 parts and gave 7 parts. The gold coins should be divided in accordance with their contribution to the stranger.”
Next morning, the village head called the two friends and gave his verdict, and explained the reasoning for it.