Wit, Wisdom & Wealth

DhaniRam was a jeweler of high prestige. During good times people considered wearing the jewels made in his shop a matter of pride, but as times changed, once the most frequented shop of DhaniRam became the least visited one.

One day, three men wishing to see him arrived at his shop. Introducing themselves as Wit, Wisdom and Wealth, the men explained that they had heard a lot of good words about business virtues of DhaniRam and therefore they had come to him with a proposition. They claimed that where ever the three of them went, the prosperity followed. Having said so, they expressed their desire to stay with him.

A dubious DhaniRam could not understand why these three strangers should be interested in his prosperity. But still after a few questions to test their business skill he asked what did they expect from him in return for their services; considering his present state he was in no position to pay them at all. When they said that they expected no benefits until the business showed any consistent profit under the condition that DhaniRam would also not dismiss them until they themselves quit the job, DhaniRam agreed and asked them to report at the shop from the next day.

Thinking of the various jobs he would assign to each one of them DhaniRam was still unsure if he had made the right decision.

From the next day, Wit got the job of getting customers to the shop, while Wisdom was given the task of handling customers in the shop and Wealth was supposed to collect payments from the customers. Having briefed them, their respective jobs, DhaniRam himself began observing them.

For the next few days, the new recruits did the work well up to the satisfaction of DhaniRam. Not many days went by before DhaniRam realized that he had committed a blunder.

One day as DhaniRam was entertaining a visitor to his shop, he noticed Wit picking arguments with the customer entering the shop, and before DhaniRam could take stock of the situation he found Wisdom talking rudely to a lady who had come to buy bangles in the shop. Just then, as he turned to see if Wealth was present at the counter of cash collection, Wit informed him that he taken off for the day.

What happened that day soon became order of many days. Now sorry for the decision that he himself had made, DhaniRam had now been having sleepless nights as he couldn’t help but think of ways to get rid of his three misnomer and unfaithful servants.

As usual DhaniRam was thinking of solving the impossible situation he had gotten himself into when his friend Karmveer came to see him. Being a very close friend of DhaniRam, Karmveer promised to get back to him with a solution in a day or two.

One fine morning as DhaniRam arrived at his shop with Karmveer he found Wit, Wisdom and Wealth, who were already present and waiting for him, looking quizzically at Karmveer. “Good morning! Wit, Wisdom and Wealth let me introduce you to my partner Endeavour. You could not meet him as he was out of town on business. He will be sitting with us at the shop”, DhaniRam introduced Karmveer to them.

“Why, DhaniRam! You have employed such a smart group of workers & you have still not brought any positive change to our business”, remarked Karmveer alias Endeavour; Now making sure that three of them were in an earshot he said, “If you don’t mind I’d like to take Wit & Wisdom for working on our venture of diamonds” What objection could DhaniRam have? And, so taking Wit and Wisdom with him Karmveer left the shop.

Karmveer, who was a coal dealer himself, made both Wit and Wisdom replace his otherwise costly laborers which he used to employ for moving many coal filled sacks. He told them that he had bought that coal from diamond mines in Kollur and would now have the coal blocks in the sacks beaten for extracting diamonds at cheap price. Noticing the doubt and fear filled expression on faces of Wit and Wisdom Karmveer realized that the two had no idea how diamonds are procured from coal and was thus confirm of the successful implementation of his plan.

At the jewelry shop, DhaniRam had a peaceful day with Wit and Wisdom out as now he could easily instruct Wealth without any unnecessary distractions.

“I believe very soon the three thugs will find their way out of your business”, said Karmveer cheerfully when he came to see DhaniRam at his house in the evening. “I think so too, the three rogues would not have worked in their whole lives as we would make them do now”, DhaniRam laughed.

Just as DhaniRam and Karmveer had anticipated, the three misnamed rogues walked up to them one evening and claimed their wish to quit the job. “But, you see the business has still not shown any profit, and what about all those diamonds still waiting to be taken out of bags full of coal blocks? ”, suggested Karmveer trying to suppress his laughter.

“We will still think that we gave our best, but for now as we have other commitments to fulfill, we want to give up our jobs”, said Wit looking towards Wisdom and Wealth with a sullen expression.

Exchanging one look of consent DhaniRam let the three blokes take their leave. “Endeavour can take Wit, Wisdom and Wealth for a run any day”, said DhaniRam as he threw a glance of thanks towards Karmveer.