The blind elephant

The blind elephant story 

There were two brothers, Daeng and Jomroon, who lived in a village on the banks of the Chao Phya near Bangkok. They had both studied under the same teacher. After leaving school, they decided to go to Bangkok to earn a living. On their way, they passed through a thick forest, Daeng saw the footprints of an elephant on the path they were following.

“These are footprint of a male elephant, blind in its left eye,” he told his brother,

“How do you know that?” asked Jomroon. “All I can see is that the elephant was traveling from south to north.”

Daeng however, did not want to hurt his brother’s feeling so he said nothing more.

After some time, they saw a large male elephant eating some bananas. When it saw them, it lifted its trunk and made a loud noise. It then ran away into the forest. before it did so, Jomroon noticed that it was blind in its left eye.

He thought to himself, “How can Daeng be so clever? We went to the same school, and passed the same examinations.”

After working for about two years in Bangkok. Daeng and Jomroon went home for a holyday. As soon as they arrived back at their village, they visited their old teacher to give him two pots of cooking oil which they had brought from Bangkok.

While they were sitting down talking together, Jomroon told his teacher about the blind elephant.

“How did Daeng know that the elephant was male and blind one eye? He asked.

“Jomroon, did you know that the pot of oil which you gave me is only half full?”

“Yes,” said Jomroon. “I was surprised to see that because it was full when I bought it in Bangkok.”

“Do you see that the pot of oil which Daeng brought me is full? This is because,” the teacher continued. “he bought a thicker pot, so that the oil wouldn’t leak from it so easily.”

He looked at Daeng. “Can you please tell Jomroon how you knew about the elephant?”

“I saw that trees on both sides of the path had been scratched by its tusk. Only male elephant have tusk. Also is footprint were deeper on the left than on the right. I knew this was because it was blind in its left eye.”

“You see,” the teacher smiled an Jomroon, “What we learn at school isn’t enough. We have to learn more from life after we leave school.”