Happiness,2 Poem by Nabakishore Dash

A poor washer man
was leading a happy life.
A donkey helped him
to carry the clothes in
his daily strives.

While moving with the donkey,
he got a glittering stone
on his way back.
With a string he hanged
the stone around
the donkey's neck.

A goldsmith saw the stone,
soon identified it as
a precious diamond stone.
He asked the washerman
to give him that stone in
exchange of a ten rupee coin.

Replied the washerman that
he got the dazzling stone on
the way to his thatched.
Offered it free,
the goldsmith took it,
moved on overjoyed and
contented.

Then came another goldsmith
who asked to offer the stone for
a hundred rupee note.
But the washerman told that
he had already given it to the
man free of charge.

What a foolish man you are!
You gave the precious stone
that would have changed your fate.

The poor man said happily it was
a stone then and also now for me.
I am washing clothes
for my living.
I pray God not to give the knowledge
of goldsmith to me.

I am happy with what I have.
The stone would make me
unhappy and sad.
Surely no amount of property
would make us jolly.
To be guided by this notion
is a big folly.
Getting all we want can
never make us merry.
Enjoying life with what we have
is the moral of the story.