One cannot live by pretension
Once there lived a beggar in a city. He thought that he would have more money if he pretended to be dumb. So he had ‘dumb’ painted on a board and hung it round his neck. Another beggar who envied him determined to punish the cheat. But how will he do it? He began to think to find a way to teach him a good lesson. One day he saw a snake-charmer exhibiting his show on the city street. Having seen him, an idea came into his mind. He waited until the show had been finished. Then he went close to the snake-charmer. He told him about his plan to punish that fake beggar and thereby needed his help. After hearing everything, the snake-charmer agreed to help him.
The following day both the snake-charmer and the beggar arrived at the place where the pretending beggar begged. But the snake-charmer hid himself behind a tree. After a while that beggar came and began to urge people on the street to help a dumb man like him with a very pathetic gesture. Right at that moment the snake-charmer threw a snake which was not venomous.
The pretentious beggar got frightened and inadvertently shouted “Snake! Snake!” But he realized immediately what he had done and tried to leave that place but in vain.
People on the street rushed after him and gave a good beating after catching him. The snake-charmer and the beggar were very happy to put of the mask of such a fake beggar. From this incident the cheat realize that one cannot live by pretension.
