Once upon a time there lived an old businessman in the small town of Barpeta. The man was no longer active in business. He had three sons.
The eldest son was handicapped and could walk only with the help of a crutch. He was just a passive participant in the family business. The middle son was actively involved in the business. He worked very hard with total commitment and had the required business acumen to run the business successfully. The old man always felt happy about the fact that his middle son could successfully take the responsibility of running the family business. The youngest son was a socialite and used to spend most of his time wandering around the town, gossiping and poking his nose in the affairs of other people. He was associated with many social organizations.
The wife of the middle son always used to complain to her husband as to why he should work so hard and share the fruits of his labor with his other brothers. This went on for a while till it became unbearable to the middle son. After resisting for some years, he finally went to his father and announced that he wanted a partition of family business and its assets. The old man, after thinking for a while, conceded but requested the middle son to continue with the family for one more month.
The next day the old man announced that the whole family would go for a pilgrimage for a few days. After traveling for a while, the family camped close to another town to spend the night.
In the morning, the old man gave the middle son Rs. 1000/- to purchase some food for the family from the nearby town. As the middle son was going towards the town, he saw some people resting by a lorry. One of them looked like a businessman. The middle son started chatting with this person. He was told that the lorry was full of bags of rice. While enquiring about price etc., he could sense the opportunity as the price of rice in his hometown was much lower than the price at which the other businessman had purchased rice and there was enough margins left even after providing for transportation. He immediately entered into a deal that ensured a profit of Rs. 1000/-, took this sum as advance, made necessary arrangements and moved on to buy food for his family. He went back with food and handed back the original sum to his father.
The next day, the old man sent the handicapped son with Rs. 1000/- to fetch food for the family. As he was going towards the town, his crutch hit a ditch and he fell down. However, he heard the sound of the crutch hitting a metallic object. While lying on the earth, he started digging further at the ditch with the help of the crutch. After a while he found a metal pot.. He took it out and discovered that the pot was full of gold coins and precious stones. Carrying the pot, he went into the town, purchased food and came back. He handed over the pot to his father.
The family moved on and the next day it was the turn of the youngest brother. He went with Rs. 1000/- to the town near to the camp. When he reached the town, he realized that the town was sharply divided in two factions who were having a conflict for ages. As was his nature, he forgot about the food and started talking to members from both the factions. After a while, he was able to provide a solution that was acceptable to both the parties. The dispute was resolved and the whole town was feeling indebted to the youngest brother. On coming to know that his family was camping outside the town, the whole town went to the camp and invited the family to be their guest for as long as they wanted. It was a proud moment for the whole family.
After a few days, the family returned back and the old man called the middle son who was eager for partition. The old man said, You see, there is no doubt that your commitment and hard work are instrumental to the success of our family business; but you don't know how much of good luck your handicapped brother is bringing to the family. Moreover, money alone is not enough. With the Security that you are able to provide to the family, your younger brother can peacefully get involved in the social work and in turn is able to bring prestige to the family. A family needs all these things. Yet, if you are still inclined, I have no option but to partition the family business.The middle son declined the offer for partition and apologized for his shortsightedness
