Once upon a time there was a poor man who wanted to visit a sick relative in another city. The other city was a one-day walk away, so his wife gave him a lump of rice to eat on the way. As his family was poor, he could not afford to take curry or soup to eat with the rice.

The poor man happened to walk past the house of a millionaire whose cook was preparing curry for lunch. The smell of the curry was so nice that it made the poor man feel hungry. He immediately sat down under a tree, took out his rice, and began to eat. He imagined that he was eating his rice with the curry. The smell of the curry was so good that he ate all the rice. Normally, it was very difficult for him to swallow rice without curry or soup.

After finishing his meal, he went to the kitchen of the millionaire to ask the cook for a drink of water. Before taking leave, he praised the cook. He told her that she was surely a good cook as her curry produced such a delicious smell. He told her that he could eat all his rice without curry or soup thanks to the smell. The cook was very pleased to hear this. He thanked her and continued on his way.

The cook smiled and took the curry to serve her master. To her surprise, the millionaire tasted the curry and complained that she had prepared the curry poorly. The cook was afraid of being punished, so she told him that the curry became tasteless because its smell had just been stolen by the poor man who happened to be walking past.

The stingy millionaire was very angry when he heard this. He got his servants to bring the poor man to him and asked him to tell his story. The innocent man admitted that he had taken some of the delicious smell of the curry without permission. The millionaire demanded compensation from the poor man. The poor man was reluctant to pay as he had only one small coin in his possession and still had to travel a long way to visit his sick relative. He might need to use it.

The millionaire arrested the poor man and took him to be judged by the village chief. After being told the whole story, the village chief instructed his servant to bring a bowl of water. He then asked the poor man how much money he had. The poor man told him that he was so poor he had only one coin to be used if necessary while travelling.

The village chief then told the poor man to put this coin in the bowl of water. The stingy millionaire was very happy as he thought that he would be given the coin in exchange for the smell of his curry.

“Thank you very much Village Chief,” the millionaire said with a broad smile. “You have given a fair judgement. That’s why all people have such great respect for you.”
The millionaire quickly stretched out his hand to take the coin from the bowl of water, but the village chief suddenly took back the bowl of water and told the poor man to take his coin back.

“Alright!” said the village chief. “This man took away the delicious smell of your curry, now you can take the water of his money in exchange for your loss. But you are allowed to take only the water. Don’t take the bowl because it belongs to me,” said the village chief to the millionaire, whose face suddenly turned pale.