99There goes a story about a poor gardener who worked in the garden of a king. The king himself was always tense and busy with problems in life. Although he had so much money he always wanted more and was equally worried about his enemies. He never trusted anyone due to this and that affected his health also.

Whenever the king used to go to his garden, he always watched that his gardener was happy and always humming some song or the other. One day he asked him, how come he is always able to keep himself happy? Gardner replied – ‘Sir, I have a small family with roof on our heads. I am able to feed my family well and take care of them. I do work of my passion. I do not see beyond this and therefore I am happy’.

King’s minister who was also along with the king however kept quiet. The king was even more disturbed. He thought that happiness was very difficult to achieve but this gardener has given such a simple definition which he was unable to digest.

He called his minister and told him to find a suitable remedy to achieve happiness for himself based on the inputs of the gardener. The minister replied – ‘Sir, I am not confident to bring any solution to you, but I can assure you that the gardener can loose his happiness in no time’.

Next morning the minister organized to keep 99 gold coins in a bag with a mark of 100 coins in front of the house of the gardener. The poor man woke up to find the bounty in front of his doorsteps. He was very happy that he has become rich. However his happiness was short-lived when on counting he realized that instead of 100 what should have been in the bag there are only 99 coins. He searched the whole place but he could not find the 100th coin. Soon his happiness turned to agitation and he started cursing his wife and children to have been responsible for the loss of one coin.

When the gardener  reached for work next day, he was not the same happy man. Now he was worried that one coin out of 100 was missing and someone is in lookout for his wealth. The minister reverted to the king – ‘Gardener is now suffering from the disease of 99. He will never be happy anymore’.

 

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