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Once upon a time there was a weaver named Mantharaka. One day, while he was weaving, the wooden supports of the loom broke. So, he took an axe with him and went to the jungle to cut wood.
While he was wandering on the sea-shore, he came across a giant tree, and he thought to himself, ‘This is a very big tree. If I cut it down, I shall be able to make many looms out of it.’
So, he started hacking at the tree with the axe. Now, in this tree lived a deity.
He called out to the weaver, ‘Weaver! Stop! this tree is my home, so please spare it. The cool breeze, coming in from the sea, blows, against this tree and I live here very happily.’
What am I to do? said the weaver. ‘If I have no wood to make a loom, my family will die of starvation. I have to cut this tree. You’ll have to find somewhere else to live?
‘My son,’ replied deity, ‘you have answered well. I am pleased with you. Ask for any boon you like and I will grant it, but spare this tree.’
Well, replied the weaver, ‘if that’s the case. I’ll go home, consult my wife and friends, and come back. Then I’ll tell you what I want and you can give it to me.’
All right, ‘said the deity, do that.’ On his return to the town, the weaver met his friend, a barber.
He said to him, ‘My friend, a deity is pleased with me and he has said that I can ask any boon of him and he will grant it. What is your advice? What should I demand from him.
‘If I were you,’ said the barber, ‘I would ask for a kingdom. Then you can be the king and I’ll be your prime minister. We can spend a happy life here and afterward enjoy life in the next world.’
Well, said the weaver, ‘that sounds all right, but I must go and consult my wife as well.’
‘Don’t do that!’ said the barber. Consulting women, for their intelligence, is of a lower caliber than ours.
Nevertheless, replied the weaver, ‘I must consult my wife. She is faithful and devoted. I never do anything without consulting her.’
The weaver went home and said to his wife, ‘My dear, a Deity is pleased with me. He said that I can ask any boon of him and he will grant it. So, I have come home to consult you. ‘Now tell me, what shall I ask for?’
‘Well,’ she replied, ‘we can meet our expenses with the one piece of cloth you weave everyday. So, you had better ask for two more hands and another head, so that you can make two pieces of cloth, one in front and one behind. Then, by selling one piece, you can live as comfortably as before and with the money from the second piece, you can perform good deeds. In this way, you will earn esteem among your relatives and, at the same time, a place in the heaven.’
When the weaver heard this, he was delighted and said, ‘Well, my faithful wife! How wisely you have spoken. I shall act accordingly.
The weaver returned to the sea-shore and prayed, if you will grant me a boon, then give me two more hands and an extra head. He had no sooner spoken than his wish was granted.
As the weaver was going home, full of joy, the town people saw him and thought that it was a monster. They threw sticks and stones at him and killed him.
Moral of The Story “And so,” continued Chakradhara, “that’s why I said, ‘He who neither has commonsense. Nor listen to what his friends tell him, is sure to be destroyed, like Mantharak, the weaver.’ “But then, anyone who comes into cantact with the devil, in the form of greed, ultimately becomes an object or ridicule. They say, ‘When a man hankers after things, that are impossible to achieve, or may never happen, he comes to grief, like Soma Sharma’s father’.”
How was that?” asked Suvaranasiddhi. And Chakradhara told this story. THE STORY OF SOM SHARMA