There
was a villager. He was illiterate. He did not know how to read and write. He
often saw people wearing spectacles for reading books or papers. He thought,
“If I have spectacles, I can also read like these people. I must go to town and
buy a pair of spectacles for myself.” So one day he went to a town. He entered
a spectacles shop He asked the shopkeeper for a pair of spectacles for reading.
The shopkeeper gave him various pairs of spectacles and a book. The villager tried
all the spectacles one by one. But he could not read anything. He told the
shopkeeper that all those spectacles were useless for him. The shopkeeper gave
him a doubtful look. Then he looked at the book. It was upside down! The
shopkeeper said,
“Perhaps
you don’t know how to read.”
The
villager said, “No, I don’t. I want to buy spectacles so that I can read like
others. But I can’t read with any of these spectacles.” The shopkeeper
controlled his laughter with great difficulty when he learnt the real problem
of his illiterate customer.
He
explained to the villager, “My dear friend, you are very ignorant. Spectacles
don’t help to read or write. They only help you to see better. First of all you
must learn to read and write.”
Moral:
Ignorance is blindness.
