The Jar of Greed : A Story

Once upon a time, there lived a potter in a village. He was an expert craftsman. His pots were beautiful and sold at a good price. His earnings were enough to look after his day-to-day needs but there was hardly anything he could save. The potter wanted his wife to look like a rich lady wearing expensive and gaudy jewellery, but he was not able to save even a penny out of his earnings. His inability to save made him desperate. So one day, he said to his wife, “I want you to have gold ornaments, so you must save as much as you can.”

As you might know, the women are fond of jewellery, so she began to save as much as possible. Thus passed many weeks but their saving was not at all enough to buy a ring even, let alone other costly necklaces and bangles. As the potter’s desire became harder to realize, he had an idea up his mind. He said to his wife. “Cut on food expenses as much as you can. We can do without one meal a day.”

Now they began to have only two meals a day instead of three. It had an adverse impact on their health. They were now weaker than ever before. With every passing day, they became thinner and weaker. Even then the potter’s desire to have gold did not subside.

They went without one meal for many months and at last were able to save enough for a necklace, though not very heavy and thick. But the potter was not content with it. He wanted his wife to have more gold ornaments. But there was no more possibility of cutting down any more of his expenditures. He pondered over the situation for long for a way out so that he could hasten the process of accumulating gold ornaments. The idea that struck his mind was to increase the price of his pots. He doubled the rates. It made it possible to earn more but was not yet enough to fulfil his desire. Thus passed a few more weeks.

The potter, as was his wont, used to have a long walk in the morning to keep good health. One day, he was out on a stroll in the woods. His mind was, as usual, deep sunk in thoughts about gold ornaments. Just then he heard a voice. It seemed to emanate from a tree. The voice said, “O potter! Is it that you want gold?”

“Yes, I want,” cried back the potter in desperation. “I want to be rich.”

“Will it satisfy your desire if you get five jars of gold?” came the voice.

“Yes, it should,” said the astonished potter.

“Well, now you run back to your cottage. You’ll find five jars of gold,” said the voice before it fell silent.

For a moment the potter stood his ground stunned and startled, but the very next moment he began to run towards his cottage, praying all the while that he might get those five jars of gold as promised by the voice. It had not told a lie. There were indeed five jars of gold. They all were covered with lids. His wife sat down near the jars while the potter kept standing bewildered. He told his wife what the voice had told him. His wife removed the lid of the first jar. She exclaimed, “Yes, it is full of gold!”

The potter too stooped over the jar to see what lay inside it. It was molten gold full to the brim. Then she removed the lid of the second jar. Yes, it was full of gold too. The third and the fourth ones were full of gold as well. Their happiness knew no bounds. Only one pot remained to be seen. “Let’s keep these pots in safe custody,” said the potter.

“Yes, we ought to, but we must first see the fifth pot too if it’s full of gold,” suggested his wife.

“Sure, we ought to do it,” said the potter removing the lid. But no! The pot was half-full, or say, half-empty as the potter perceived it.

“You opened it so only it is half-full,” shouted the potter’s wife.

“Oh, yes! I should have let you open it. But you need not worry it. We’ll fill it with gold and make it as full as the other pots are,” said the potter.

The potter took the necklace and the ring that his wife had, and got them melted at the village jeweller. But alas! It was hardly sufficient to fill it to the brim. The fifth jar remained half-empty as it was before. The potter sold all the utensils and exchanged them for gold, but the jar remained half-empty.  He sold the little furniture he had, but the level of gold in the fifth jar refused to rise. His wife and he further reduced their meals from two to one, but it failed to raise the level of the gold in weeks. It drove him to extreme desperation. Physically too, he was famished, frail and feeble.

One day as the potter passed by the landlord’s place, the latter called him and said, “What’s the matter? You’ve grown quite thin and weak, haven’t you? Are you ill?

 “No, I am not ill,” replied the potter.

“Then there must be something very sad troubling you, for your face is very gloomy these days,” inquired the landlord.

“There’s nothing serious. It’s money that I’m worried about,” said the potter.

“Money! But you should be having a lot of it because you’ve almost doubled the prices of your wares,” said the landlord.

The potter contemplated in his mind whether he should tell the landlord that he was worried about gold and more gold. He had not told anyone about the five jars. The landlord was a helpful, kind-hearted man. So the potter decided to reveal the secret. He told everything and added, “It’s the fifth jar that I’ve miserably failed to fill up to the brim. It’s what has driven me crazy.”

Listening to this, the landlord laughed loudly and for long. The potter looked at him with wide open eyes without understanding what made him laugh. The landlord said, “So you’re fixed up in a trap!”

“What trap?” said the potter still bewildered at the sudden change of behaviour of the landlord.

The landlord said, “It was I who was offered those jars. I too found the fifth jar half full, but instead of filling it with my gold, I went to the tree and asked why it was half-full.”

“Then?” said the potter.

“I asked why the fifth jar was half-full. The voice said that the fifth jar would always remain half-empty,” the landlord said.

“What happened next?” the potter asked anxiously.

“The voice fell silent even though I tried my best to get more answers from it. But I understood that it was a trap. The voice meant that the jar always remains empty however hard I might try to fill it. It meant that this jar was the jar of greed which is never fulfilled,” explained the landlord.

“Then how did you get rid of the trap?” asked the potter.

“It was not at all difficult,” said the landlord. “I asked the tree to take back its five jars. When I went home, all the jars had disappeared.”

“Are you sure what you said,” asked the potter.

“There is not an iota of doubt in it,” replied the landlord.

The potter straightaway went to the tree and requested it to take back the five jars of gold which had made his life miserable. When the potter reached back home, the jars had all vanished and with it had also vanished the gold that he had put into it. Awakened from his greed, he found that had lost even his own utensils and furniture which he would have to work hard to earn once again.  However, he was feeling very relaxed and happy.