THE THUMB MARKS

Sheikh's mother now wanted Sheikh's to get a job and earn some money.

She asked Sheikh's uncle to get him a job, with a friend's help, Sheikh's uncle got sheikh a job in the king's court. Sheikh was very happy on meeting the King.

The king wanted to know the number of villages in his state and how many people were there in each village.

He wanted Sheikh to get the thumb marks of all the people so that they could be counted. He said that Sheikh would be paid one paisa for every thumb mark and that he should get atleast one hundred and fifty thumb marks.

The friend of the uncle told Sheikh, "I have heard that you are very stupid. Don't spoil anything with your stupidity.

Sheikh nodded and started working very hard. Satisfied, his uncle thought "Sheikh will earn a lot of money now"

Sheikh was in the villages for a long time. He worked very hard for the first time in his life.

When he finished his work, he went to the friend of the uncle. Sheikh showed him the thumbprints and was paid for them.

Then Sheikh went to his uncle and said, "Your friend thought that I am stupid, but I showed him that I am clever."

"What have you done?" asked the uncle alarmed.

Sheikh laughed and boasted, "I got many thousands of thumb marks but I showed him just one hundred and fifty. The rest I threw away."

"What? Are you crazy, Sheikh?" exclaimed the Uncle."

"Why?" asked Sheikh, not understanding what his uncle was saying.

The uncle said, "By throwing away the thumb marks, you lost a lot of money that you could have earned."

"How"? Asked Sheikh Chilli, His stupid mind could not understand this.

The uncle said, "You would have got one paisa for each thumb mark. You got thousands of thumb marks.

"So what?" asked Sheikh?

"So you would have earned thousand of paise," said the Uncle.

"So what did I do wrong?" said Sheikh, still confused.

"You threw away all the papers with the thumb marks. You have lost all that money you would have got for the thumb marks," said his Uncle.

Sheikh couldn't understand this. The uncle knew that Sheikh Chilli would do foolish things throughout his life and create trouble for his family.

The uncle did not want to suffer because of Sheikh's stupidity.

The uncle then decided to send Sheikh back to his mother.