Stories That Will Change Your Life

Grass is Greener on the Other Side

Once upon a time lived a farmer. He was poor but peaceful; the farmer's whole life was dependent upon agriculture. Full year, he used to work his finger to the bone on: crop selection, land preparation, seed selection, seed sowing, irrigation, crop growth, fertilizing, and harvesting.

Now it was time to sell his crops to a dealer, to whom he always used to sell his harvested crops. But only one desire kept churning in his mind that he should get some increment.

Unfortunately, as always the farmer received unsatisfactory pay for his crops. While going home, he was cursing his fate, "What a pitiful life I live! It's me who worked my tail off. But that dealer, he just come once a year and earn a lot of money. I must say, what a wonderful life he lives!"

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Back there, the dealer was counting the revenue he collected from all of the farmers. It was hundreds and thousands of Indian rupees. Then came the income-tax officer, who became so happy to see a huge pile of wealth being gleaned as a revenue.

The income-tax officer gave the dealer his commission—which was not too much—and took away the rest of the money.

Of course, the dealer became down in the dumps with that insignificant amount of money he received. He began to curse his fate, similarly like the farmer did. "What a pitiful life I live! It's me who has to deal with angry farmers and bear their curses. It's me who give them minimum pay on their crops, although they deserve a larger income. And only I know what it takes to convince them. But I must say, what a wonderful life this income-tax officer lives!"

As the day dragged, the income-tax officer came to the palace, and presented the revenue before King. A dim smile stretched across King's face, he ordered a treasurer to give the income-tax officer's pay for his work, and put the rest of the amount in the kingdom's treasure.

Needless to say, the income-tax officer was disappointed to receive such measly pay for his work. Now he began to curse his fate, in a similar way the farmer and dealer did. "What a pity! I had a huge amount of money with me, but I couldn't steal it. Because King will kill me if I did something like that. But I must say, what a wonderful life King lives! He gets all the wealth with no efforts at all."

Certainly, King has been living a luxurious life. Wherever he went, he got the royal treatment. Each and every need of the King was taken care. Prosperity, knowledge, resources, strength, etc., never left his kingdom.

One day while goofing off in his bedroom's balcony, King was wondering, "What a pitiful life I am living! I'm always under a fear that my position will be snatched away from me at any moment. I'm always under threat by neighboring kingdoms. Every time my subordinates come and bug my mind with various problems that seem unsolvable to me. Daily someone comes to me, whining about their problems. Alas! I have no peace of mind at all."—He looked at a farmer, just a short distance away from his palace—"But I must say, what a peaceful life this poor farmer lives."

We came to the same point, where we started.

Moral of the story: The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. People always think they would be happier in a different set of circumstances. And that's why everyone keeps on comparing oneself with other. This story implies that the other circumstances really are not any better.

What did you learn from this story?