Right-Mind and Wrong-Mind
Panchatantra
Two merchant friends, Right-Mind and Wrong-Mind, found a pot of coins while travelling. They agreed to share it fairly, taking a little home and hiding the rest beneath a mimosa tree.
Wrong-Mind soon spent his share. Secretly, he returned, took the buried coins and smoothed the earth.
Later he accused Right-Mind of stealing them. Right-Mind denied it, and the dispute went before the magistrates.
Wrong-Mind claimed that the spirit of the mimosa tree had witnessed the theft. The night before the hearing, he hid his father inside the hollow trunk with a speaking tube. His father had warned him that one dishonest plan often creates a worse problem, but Wrong-Mind refused to listen.
The next morning, a voice from the tree accused Right-Mind.
Right-Mind did not panic. He noticed fresh footprints, a clay seal that had been disturbed and the end of a tube hidden among the roots.
The magistrates asked everyone to step into the open. Wrong-Mind’s father emerged unharmed and admitted the trick.
The stolen coins were returned. Wrong-Mind apologized and was required to repay what he had spent through honest work.
Right-Mind kept his good name because he answered a lie with calm observation, not anger.
“A lie may hide briefly, but careful evidence gives the truth a voice.”