In India, there was a small village, and in this village there lived a man named Tenali Rama. He was a very, very poor person. He was married, he had a wife, no children, and barely anything to eat. He worked as a kind of wandering priest. All he did was carry a small bowl of water, walk around saying prayers, and wait for people to give him some money. Whatever money he collected, he would bring home to his wife, and together they would buy a little rice, cook it with some salt, and eat rice and salt every day. He lived in a very small, dirty hut – it was barely even a house.

One day, after two or three days of earning nothing, Tenali was walking along feeling very hungry, clutching his little bowl of water. Then he saw two people coming towards him. One was a king named Krishna – a very wise man with a sharp mind. The other was the king’s friend, a businessman named Arjun, who had a lot of money and was known for his kind heart.

Arjun saw Tenali and asked, ‘What do you need?’ Tenali said, ‘King Krishna, Arjun, I have not eaten for three days. I am very hungry and very poor. I have not been able to collect any money. Please help me.’ Arjun, being the kind-hearted man he was, reached into his pocket and gave Tenali a hundred dollars. ‘Wow!’ said Tenali, his eyes going wide. A hundred dollars was a lot of money! As Arjun and Krishna walked away, the king asked, ‘Why did you give him so much?’ Arjun replied, ‘I felt very bad for him.’

Tenali stood there holding the money and began to dream. ‘I am going to get chicken pizza today! And lemonade! And I will buy my wife a gift, and some new clothes, and a carpet for the house – and it has been so hot, I will buy a fan!’ He started dancing with joy, waving the hundred dollars in the air for everyone to see, clapping his hands and stamping his feet.

But a thief was watching. The thief saw the money in Tenali’s hand, pulled out a knife, and said, ‘Tenali – give me the money or I will cut your throat.’ Tenali got very scared and handed over all the money. The thief pocketed it and ran away. Tenali stood there, heartbroken. He went home and cried and cried. That night, he could not eat anything. He had been dreaming of pizza, but he went to bed with an empty stomach.

The next morning, Tenali went out again with his little bowl of water, walking slowly and sadly. Then he saw Krishna and Arjun again. ‘Please help me!’ he cried. ‘I am so sad.’ Arjun frowned. ‘Tenali, I gave you a hundred dollars just yesterday.’ Tenali hung his head. ‘I am so sorry. I was dancing and celebrating, and a thief saw the money in my hand and took it all.’ Arjun shook his head and said, ‘Okay, I feel sorry for you. But this time, be very careful.’ He reached into his pocket and this time he had no cash. So he took the diamond from the ring on his finger – a beautiful stone worth ten thousand dollars – and placed it in Tenali’s hand. ‘Keep this safe,’ he said. ‘It is worth a great deal.’

Tenali looked at the diamond and his eyes lit up. ‘Oh, thank you, Arjun, thank you!’ And then – just like before – he started dreaming and dancing all the way home, lost in his dreams.

When he arrived home, he looked around for a safe place to hide the diamond. His house had almost nothing in it except for one large mud pot he used to store water. It was dry and empty. ‘This is the safest place,’ he thought. He dropped the diamond into the pot and went to sleep, without telling his wife a word.

In the middle of the night, his wife woke up feeling thirsty. She saw the big mud pot was empty, so she went outside to the lake, filled the pot all the way to the brim with water, and came back home. She had no idea that the diamond had been sitting at the bottom. When she filled it with water from the lake, the diamond slipped out and sank to the bottom of the lake.

In the morning, Tenali reached into the pot – and found only water. The diamond was gone. His wife told him what had happened. Tenali was devastated. He ran back to find Arjun and Krishna and told them everything.

Arjun looked at him for a long moment. Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out a single coin – just one dollar. He held it out to Tenali. Tenali stared at it, disappointed. ‘One dollar?’ he said quietly. ‘That is all?’ But he had no choice. He took the coin and walked away.

This time, Tenali did not dance. He did not dream. He sat down and thought very carefully. ‘What can I do with just one dollar?’ After a long while, he had an idea. He walked to the market and spent the dollar on a simple fishing hook and a length of thread. Then he walked to the lake near his house, tied the thread to a stick, put the hook in the water, and sat down to wait.

He sat there patiently, hour after hour, in the hot sun. And then – tug! He pulled up a fish. A good-sized fish. He carried it home, and when his wife cut it open to cook it – she gasped. There, gleaming inside the belly of the fish, was the diamond from Arjun’s ring! The very fish that had swum into the pot and swallowed the diamond had now been caught by Tenali’s own hand.

Tenali could not believe his eyes. He grabbed the diamond, jumped up, and started running and shouting with joy – ‘I found it! I found it!’ He ran through the village, screaming and laughing, waving the diamond in the air.

Now, the thief who had stolen his hundred dollars happened to be standing nearby. When he saw Tenali running towards him, screaming wildly, the thief panicked. He thought Tenali had gone mad and was coming for revenge. Terrified, the thief pulled the hundred dollars out of his pocket and threw it at Tenali’s feet. ‘Take it back! Take it back! Just leave me alone!’ he cried, and ran away as fast as his legs could carry him.

Tenali stopped and looked down. There at his feet was his hundred dollars. He picked it up, looked at the diamond in his other hand, and burst out laughing.

From a distance, Arjun and Krishna had been watching everything. Arjun turned to Krishna with a smile. ‘You see,’ he said, ‘when you gave Tenali a hundred dollars, he danced and showed it off and a thief took it. When you gave him the diamond, he hid it carelessly and it was lost. But when I gave him just one dollar – when he had nothing and had to work for himself – he used his mind, he worked hard, and he got back everything he had lost, and more. That is the lesson. When things are given to us too easily, we become lazy and careless. But when we must work for what we have, we find our own strength. Hard work is the only true path to happiness and security.’

Krishna nodded slowly. ‘You are right, Arjun,’ he said. ‘The greatest gift you can give someone is not money or diamonds. It is the chance to discover what they are capable of on their own.’

And Tenali Rama walked home that day – with his diamond, his hundred dollars, and a fish for dinner – a wiser and happier man than he had ever been.

Moral of the Story: Hard work is the only true path to happiness and security. What we earn with our own hands, we keep forever.