Once there were three friends. They travelled to a far off city in search of business and through their hard work and business skills made a lot of money. Then one day, one of them proposed to return to their hometown and they all decided to return together.
So they sold off their businesses and were getting ready to travel when one of them said: “Friends, it is not safe to travel with so much money in our pockets. Moreover I have heard that the road through forest is frequented by robbers.” Then the other friend suggested: “Let’s buy gems with this money. Hiding the gems would be easier than money.” So they all agreed and bought three exquisite gems with all their savings. Then they departed for their hometown.
Meanwhile a thief was lurking around in the market where he observed the three friends buying such precious gems. He got interested in their actions and started following them discreetly. He planned to rob them once they were inside the forest.
When the three friends entered the forest, one of the friends said, “It is still not safe to carry our treasured gems in our pockets. Let’s swallow them and carry them in our stomachs.” So they covered the gems with mouthful of food and swallowed it. The thief saw all this and thought to himself: “my work is easier now. All I have to do is to kill them in their sleep, cut open their stomachs and extract the gems.” With this thought, he approached the three friends.
“Dear fellow travellers,” the thief said, “you seem to be travelling north. Since I am also going in that direction, you should accept me in your group as together we would have higher chances of defeating the robbers, if we meet any.” The three friends agreed to his proposal and accepted him in their travel party.
They travelled the whole day through thick forest and when twilight approached, they decided to spend the night in a cave. The thief among them decided to execute his plan in the middle of night when the three friends would be fast asleep.
However, as fate would have it, the cave was the hideout of a gang of forest robbers. And when they arrived home shortly afterwards, they were surprised to see the four intruders. They immediately held them and bound them together. The chief of these forest robbers had a parrot. When the parrot saw the four prisoners, he shouted: “There are gems! There are gems!”
Alarmed by his trusted parrot’s words, the chief asked his men to search the belongings of the four travellers. They searched through everything and found nothing valuable in them.
Then the parrot shouted again: “There are gems! There are gems!” The robbers then disrobed the four travellers and searched again thoroughly but found nothing of interest.
Then the parrot shouted again: “There are gems! There are gems!” Listening to this the chief said: “I have tested this parrot all my life, and he has never been wrong about it. He says that there are gems in your possession. Where are they?” They replied: “If there are gems in our possession, how did your most careful search fail to reveal them?”
The chief replied: “If my parrot says the thing over and over, the gems are certainly there, in your stomachs. It is now evening. Tomorrow morning we would cut you stomachs open and retrieve the treasure.” With this decision all of them went to sleep.
Overnight, the thief pondered, “In the morning, when their stomachs are cut open and the chief finds such splendid gems, the greedy villain will be quite certain to slash my belly too. So my death is a certainty, whatever happens. What am I to do? There is no point in fearing death because it will come today or after hundred years. One cannot escape it. So it would be better if I offer myself to them first. Since they won’t find anything in my body, they may have mercy on the other three and let them go. Atleast by this gesture, I would redeem myself of my past sins.” And so the night passed.
At dawn the robbers’ chief was preparing to cut open their stomachs when the thief clasped his hands and humbly requested him. “I cannot,” he said, “behold the cutting of the stomachs of these my brothers. Please be gracious, and cut my stomach first.”
To this the chief mercifully agreed, but he found no sign of a gem in the stomach. Thereupon he penitently cried: “What have I done! I depended too much on my bird and in greed killed an innocent man. I infer that no more gems will be found in the other stomachs either.” He immediately freed the other three friends.
