One day Sheikh
Chilli was flying a kite when his mother called him and asked him to get
mustard oil worth eight Annas from the market
His mother also gave
him a big tumbler for the oil and told Sheikh to be careful in bringing the
oil.
Sheikh Chilli went
to the shop and asked for eight annas worth of mustard oil from the shopkeeper.
The shopkeeper
filled the tumbler and then said, "I have given seven annas worth of oil.
One anna worth of oil is still left. In which utensil should I give it to
you?"
Sheikh thought for a
long time and then his hand felt the hollow bottom of the tumbler and he got the
idea that the hollow of the container would be enough to hold one anna worth of
oil.
He turned the full
tumbler upside down and told the shocked shopkeeper to fill the one anna worth
of oil in the hollow at the bottom of the tumbler.
The shopkeeper was
too surprised to say anything. He put the one anna worth of oil in the hollow
of the tumbler.
Sheikh carried the
tumbler home very carefully. His mother asked, "Sheikh where is the rest
of the oil"?
Sheikh turned the
tumbler upside down again and replied, "Here mother."
She exclaimed,
"But there is nothing here in the tumbler and you have spilt what little
oil you had brought!"
"But I saw the
shopkeeper put the oil in the tumbler," insisted Sheikh.
"Do you know
what you have done son? You have thrown all the oil down. You have wasted all
the eight annas and also your time," explained his mother.
Sheikh looked at the
tumbler and remarked, "But the shopkeeper had given me mustard oil in this
tumbler. What happened to it? Where did it go?"
Just then the
shopkeeper's son came and said to sheikh's mother, "Father has sent this
seven annas worth of mustard oil because when sheikh had turned over the
tumbler in the shop, the oil had dropped into the oil tin itself."
Sheikh's mother took
the oil and thanked the boy, but Sheikh still stood looking at the tumbler in a
daze.
He wondered again,
"I saw the shopkeeper pour oil in this tumbler. Where did it go?"
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