Assets and Disabilities

A rich man who had worked hard in his youth now wanted to enjoy the best of his life. He got a beautiful house built, a green lawn to go with it and a powerful vehicle. He had a vast area of land around this house. There were a few servants at his beck and call. He was now reaching his sixtieth birthday having retired a few years back.

His devoted wife was always concerned about him and their children who were well settled in life and lived in different parts of the world. Everything happened to go well for him and it appeared to all that he was living happily. But of late he was not feeling as of old. He wasn’t happy about this phase. He had no health issues yet he was feeling a bit low.

He travelled to places of scenic beauty in his car. He had the best fruits brought to his house. He was still caught in the web of money. His mind was busy calculating how much his investments gave back in return. Exploring new vistas of financial planning was becoming his best loved hobby and he had gotten used to measure everything in money. A person walking by his house was measured by him whenever they got a chance to speak to him.

He still read the newspaper before the breakfast was laid out for him. He read some paragraphs from priceless books written by successful men. Walked around his garden inspecting the trees whose produce gave him good money.

His lunch had the best dishes though he partook very little from each of them. He surveyed his workers at work in the large tracts of land and came back home having lived yet another day. But as said earlier, he wasn’t sure if he was happy in spite of having what he had wished for.

One day a famished dog with a wretched look came to the gate. The gate was half open and the dog looked at him in anticipation but he raised a hue and cry and the poor dog took to his heels. His wife who was him chided him gently for not helping the dog.

A few days after, a man came during noon time asking for something to eat. Even though he knew lunch was almost getting ready, he shooed away the poor man who had come with great expectations. This also was noticed by his wife.

The same day evening his chartered accountant came and laid before him the income statement. He was highly impressed and rewarded him and showed the statement to his wife. The assets column was overflowing whereas he had no liabilities. See Rumi, he told his wife, no liabilities. Yes!, she remarked sadly, “but you have a disability. You have lost the ability to move even a mustard of these earnings to those who need it” .