Wit & Wisdom

Roger Jenkins
 storyteller

© Roger Jenkins 2011    Made With Serif WebPlus.

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© Roger Jenkins 2011    Made With Serif WebPlus.

HIGHLIGHT
 THIS MONTH
Long ago in Nepal, there was a poor family: a man, his wife, a young daughter, and the man’s old father.  The old man was too old to work any more.  He was entirely dependent upon his son and daughter-in-law and they found him a great burden.  He became more and more of a bother to them ,as neither son nor daughter-in-law wanted to take care of him.  He ate what scraps they gave him and wore what thin, old clothes came his way.  
Sometimes the girl felt so sorry for his grandfather that he’d share his own food with him, but her parents would scold her if they saw, telling her she mustn’t waste good food.
The old man was unhappy about the way he was treated. He grumbled and complained.  Instead of trying to comfort him, his son and daughter-in-law grew more and more impatient.
Finally they simply couldn’t stand the old man any longer.  Secretly they began planning how to get rid of him.  They decided to take the old man to some place far, far away and leave him there.  
The man said that he would go to the market and buy a doko, a large basket of coarsely woven bamboo, to carry his old father away in.
“I’ll take him so far away he can’t possibly make his way back.  I’ll leave him under a tree by the roadside.  Maybe people will feel sorry for him and take care of him.”
“What about our neighbor? They’ll notice your Father is no longer here.”
“Just say he wanted to go to some holy place to spend the rest of his life in peace.”
However, their daughter had overheard.   When her father left for the market to get the
doko, she asked:  “Mother, why are you going to throw Grandfather away?”
“No, no!”  his mother answered.  “We’re not going to throw him away.  Of course we aren’t. There’s no one here to take good care of him, since your father and I must work hard.  So your father is taking Grandfather to a place where he’ll get more attention.”
“Where?”
“Oh, it’s far away.”
“Who will look after him there?”
“Don’t worry!  There’ll be many kind people there to look after him.”
The man came back with a large doko.  He waited until night, for he didn’t want the neighbors to see what he was doing.  When it was dark, he lifted the old man into the doko.  
“What’s going on?”  asked the old man, alarmed.  
“My wife and I can’t take care of you.  So we’ve decided to take you to a holy place where everyone will be kind to you,” the man replied.  
The old man wasn’t deceived.  He understood what they intended to do with him.  “You ungrateful son!” he shouted.  “Think of all those years I took care of you! This is how you re-pay me?”  The man became angry.  With a jerk he lifted the doko onto his back and hurried out.
The girl had been watching. As his father was about to disappear into the night, the girl called out:
“Father, after you throw Grandfather away, please take good care of the doko. Bring it back.”
Puzzled, the man stopped, turned back. “Why, daughter?”
“Because,” she said, ‘we’ll need it again when you’re old and I have to throw you away.”
Hearing this, her father stopped.  He could not go on. Ashamed, he lowered the doko to the ground, helped his father out and brought him home.
The Doko, a traditional tale from Nepal