There were two brothers, Daeng and Jomroon, who lived in
a village on the banks of the Chao Phya near Bangkok. They had both studied
under the same teacher. After leaving school, they decided to go to Bangkok to
earn a living. On their way, they passed through a thick forest. Daeng saw the
footprints of an elephant on the path they were travelling.
“These are footprint of a male elephant, blind in its
left eye,” he told his brother.
“How do you know that?” asked Jomroon. “All I can see is
that the elephant was traveling from south to north.”
Daeng however, did not want to hurt his brother’s feeling
so he said nothing more.
After some time, they saw a large male elephant eating
some bananas. When it saw them, it lifted its trunk and made a loud noise. It
then ran away into the forest. before it did so, Jomroon noticed that it was
blind in its left eye.
Jomroon said to himself, “How can Daeng be so clever? We
went to the same school, and passed the same examinations.”
After working for about two years in Bangkok, Daeng and
Jomroon went home for a holiday. As soon as they arrived back at their village,
they visited their old teacher to give him two pots of cooking oil which they
had brought from Bangkok. While they were sitting down talking together, Jomroon
told his teacher about the blind elephant.
“How did Daeng know that the elephant was male and blind
one eye?” He asked.
“Jomroon, did you know that the pot of oil which you gave
me is only half full?”
“Yes,” said Jomroon. “I was surprised to see that because
it was full when I bought it in Bangkok.”
“Do you see that the pot of oil which Daeng brought me is
full? This is because he bought a thicker pot, so that the oil wouldn’t leak
from it so easily.”
The old teacher looked at Daeng, “Can you please tell
Jomroon how you knew about the elephant?”
“I saw that trees on both sides of the path had been
scratched by its tusk. Only male elephant have tusk. Also is footprint were
deeper on the left than on the right. I knew this was because it was blind in
its left eye.”
“You see,” the teacher smiled at Jomroon, “What we learn
at school isn’t enough. We have to learn more from life after we leave school.”
-FIN-
Read the Indonesian translation HERE
Author: Unknown
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