In a small village, there was a small hut, where two brothers lived together. The elder one was called Kapil and the younger one Saroj. Saroj was not a lazy one, but his elder brother was very idle. One day the younger one went shopping around the market. He found Rs. 10 and bought some food for home. Kapil was glad to see his brother taking something in his hand.

As soon as Saroj entered the house, Kapil pretended to be sick.Saroj was the honest one and he asked his brother what had happened ? He seemed to be unwell.
Kapil: “what do you mean ‘I seem to be unwell?’ I am really feeling unwell.”
As soon as Saroj heared this, he gave all the nice food he bought to his brother. His brother ate everything happily and fell really nicely asleep.

It was the very next day, in the early morning! Saroj said: “ Brother, I would like to cut some wood and make some money by selling this wood.” With those words, Saroj took an axe and moved towards the forest searching nice trees. He found a tree which was really old enough to cut down. He started to cut it down. There was a snake in a branch of the tree covering her eggs. As the snake hissed, Saroj got scared when he saw the snake. The snake raised his head to stab Saroj. Suddenly the snake saw the axe in Saroj’s hand and started asking for mercy: “Please don’t kill me, if I die, who will take care of my children.” Saroj felt kindness at the request of the snake. He did not harm the snake, and let it go. The snake was happy: “Thank you very much, please keep this Manee* in your pocket, it is a shiny diamond and it will make you rich.” Saroj gladly received the diamond from the snake.Saroj took it to the market to sell it. He received a huge amount of money and returned to his house. He told everything to his elder brother.

The next day, greedy Kapil took an axe and went to the forest to cut down the trees in search of the holy snake. Eventually, he found a nice tree and started to cut it down. As described by his brother he found a snake. As soon as he saw it, he got scared and started to run away leaving the axe behind. The angry snake chased him and bit the greedy Kapil. Kapil hardly made his way back to home and fell down in the floor. When Saroj came back home, he found his greedy, lazy brother had left this world for ever. Saroj burned the dead body and performed the holy rituals. Then, he got married to a nice girl and lived happily ever after.

– Aruna Subba, Grade 5, Shree Bhanodaya Primary School

* precious diamond found in the snake’s body