The Thief

[Guest guest]

I was reading a book called THE GUIDE by R K

Narayan when a though struck me. The deals with a Travel

guide who cheats a woman and then escapes and becomes a

holy man. <br><br>That reminded me of a story which

Shri Ramakrishna used to tell :<br>One dark night a

fisherman stole into a private garden with a pond full of

fish. He was pleased to see that the house was dark.

Thinking everyone was deep asleep, he decided to catch

some of the fish in the pond.<br>But the sound of the

net dropping into the water woke up the master of the

house. “Did you hear that?” the master said. “Some one

may be stealing our fish!”<br><br>The master ordered

his servants to go out and check. The fisherman was

in a fix. “They are coming this way!” he said to

himself in a panic. “They will soon be here to beat me

up. What shall I do?”<br>He quickly hid his net under

a bush and started to run. But there was no way to

escape. As he was desperately looking for a place to

hide, he suddenly saw a smoldering fire, perhaps left

by a holy man.<br>“Fate could not have been kinder

to me” the relieved fisherman thought. He quickly

pulled off his turban and smeared some ash on his arms

and forehead and sat in front of the fire, pretending

to be a holy man deep in meditation.<br>The chasing

servants came upon him and, thinking he was a holy man,

decided to leave without disturbing him.<br>“What

happened?” the master of the house asked. “Did you find the

thief?” <br> “No luck Sir,” the servants replied. “He

escaped. But we found a holy man meditating in the

garden.”<br>“A holy man in my garden!” said the master, “I am so

very fortunate. Take me to him.”<br>The servants took

the master over to the place where the fisherman was

pretending to meditate. As they came close the master told

everyone to be quiet so as not to disturb the great

saint.<br>“I have fooled them well, even the master of the

house!“ thought the fisherman as he pretended to

meditate.<br>The master of the house and his servants finally

left. The fisherman decided to sit quietly for the rest

of the night and to escape at dawn. At the crack of

dawn he got up to leave but before he could escape he

saw a young couple approaching with a newborn

baby.<br>“Oh, holy one! We heard of you and have come to seek

your blessings,” they said. “Please bless our

child.”<br>“May God bless you!” said the fake holy man.<br>As the

couple left, the fisherman found a whole crowd of people

had come to receive his blessings. They had in their

hands offerings of all kinds, flowers, sweets, even

silver plates! <br>The fisherman was so touched by the

respect and devotion the people showed him that he

decided to prented no longer and truly become a man of

God. He gave up thieving for good and spent the rest

of his life in prayer and meditation.<br><br>What

happened to the thief? Was he able to achieve spiritual

ecstacy? I am just curious. Any comments anyone?