Once upon a time there was a king who had the most powerful empire. One evening he along with his commander was out on a drive to see the well being of his people. He passed across green fields and saw a family of a farmer playing in the fields. There was the farmer, his wife and two sons. They had clothes that barely covered their bodies. Skinny, dark, shabby yet joyful. It seemed they had no regrets in life and were enjoying themselves to the fullest.
King stood still for a while watching them and didn’t even realize he had a broad smile on his face while looking at them. He started thinking when was the last time he smiled like this; when was the last time he played with madness. He turned towards his commander and said, ‘I have so much power, wealth, costliest possessions. Best to wear, Best to eat. But still I am not as happy as these people are. What is the Reason?
Commander paused for a while, looked towards the family, at this point they were rolling in the mud and one of the son was trying to jump over his father’s shoulders. King was looking straight into the eyes of commander when he said,
“Majesty! They are happy because they are still not part of 99 club!”
“99 Club” What is this.
Commander, very innocently said, I can explain you that but for that you will have to give me 99 gold coins
Immediately without giving another thought king handed over 99 gold coins to him. He collected those in a bag and asked for 6 months time frame to explain about 99 club.
That night, the commander, quietly kept that bag of 99 gold coins outside farmer’s house and went way. Next morning when farmer’s wife opened the door, she was surprised to see the bag there.She picked up the bag and showed it to the farmer. He opened the bag and saw gold coins in that.
All 4 members of the family felt excited. They sat together and started counting them. They were 99. They again counted. It was 99. They were surprised. Everyone counted the coins one by one but it was 99.
Nevertheless, kids said forget it, let’s go out and do some shopping.
Farmer stopped them. He said we will go for shopping but let’s earn 1 more coin and when we complete the count of 100, we will go out and Enjoy.
They all agreed. Farmer went out to fields and started working harder ‘n’ harder to earn 1 extra coin. He started coming late, got tired and in agitation even stopped playing with kids. Days passed.
One day kids saw a shop of toys and spent 5 coins out of the lot
When farmer came back home and counted coins he was surprised to see the count to be 94. He got so furious and shouted on kids. He even slapped his wife for allowing kids to spend the coin.
6 months passed.
The commander along with the king once again came across the green fields.
The farmer was sweating in the sun. The wife was slapping one of the son for spoiling crops and another son was using abusive language with his father
King was shocked to see this. He turned towards the commander and said “what happened to this family?”
The commander replied “Now they are part of 99 club”
So are we also the part of 99 club?
Stop and leave this Membership
Thanks to Gaur Gopal Das for enlightening the World with Great Thoughts.
