Bhai Sud

Once upon a time, in a village in the Punjab, there was a very old man named Bhai Sud. He was 86 years old and he was well known for being truly wise. One day, as he was taking his daily walk, he saw the village chief running around in a frantic hurry. He yelled to Bhai Sud in alarm, "Bhai Sud Ji, there is a gang of bandits coming this way! They have been going from village to village, stealing everything, killing people and destroying everything in their path!"

Normally an emergency like that would make most people become scared, but instead of freaking out, Bhai Sud was very calm and said, "I'll just stay right here, don't worry about me." The chief couldn't argue with him, because he was so respected and wise, so he left him alone. Then he ran around frantically back to the village to warn and protect everyone else. Bhai Sud calmly waited until the rowdy gang of murderous bandits arrived. They asked him, "Why aren't you hiding in the village with the rest of the people? Don't you know we can just kill you right now!?" He said, "Oh I'm just watching how foolish you all are."

This outraged the bandits but it also made them want to talk to him more. "Explain yourself!!!" they roared at him. So Bhai Sud Ji decided to tell them a made up story: "The villagers heard that you were coming to raid us. I thought we should just offer you some money and hope you would spare us and move on to the next village. But our village chief called me a coward and didn't agree. He kicked me out of the village and left me at your mercy to die. You see, one third of the village wants to fight you, but if you kill me, the other two thirds will definitely want to fight you as well. " Then Bhai Sud sighed dramatically, and with a smile playing at the corner of his mouth, finished the lie, "Ah, what do I care, you guys are going to kill me. And even if you don't I can never come back to the village...so just go ahead, do what you need to do."

Well, the leader of the bandits was getting confused. He thought for awhile, then asked, "How many people do you mean when you say one third of the village?" Bhai Sud replied, "Its about 3 times as many men as you have here." The bandits started to get worried, thinking, "If we kill this old man, than the other two thirds will fight us too, and that would be 6 times more than we are!"

The other bandits started giving their comments too, saying, "We shouldn't kill him! If we do we will all surely die!" Then just as calmly as before, the very old and wise Bhai Sud said, "Well if you don't kill me, I would still advise you to leave right now, and leave fast, because I have no idea when these villagers are going to attack!" And like magic, as suddenly as they arrived the bandits thundered off on their horses and the village was saved.

The villagers were joyful and amazed. One of them asked Bhai Sud, "What did you tell them?? How did you scare them away??" He told them the whole story and they were so excited, saying, "Wow! How did you come up with such a brilliant plan? Did you plot this idea a long time ago?" He said, "No, I had no plan. It is just that I'm old enough to know how to talk to people who have childish minds. I didn't even have a clever idea, it was just the wisdom of life that spoke through me. Let me tell you something, I decided a long ago that I'm going to live a peaceful life, I love my God and my Guru and I don't care if the whole world blows up; I won't change how I live."

The moral of the story is this: Wisdom is when you know exactly who you are. Nothing can distract your peace, nothing can shake you from your center of calm. That is where wisdom comes from. The reality is, everything in this world may change, but nothing will ever change the fact that you are a child of God.

Storyteller:  Harijot Singh Khalsa
Topics:  Saints & Sages
Age ranges:  13 - 17