In plain words
In it desires and greed began to arise. There was a farmer. That farmer had some land. After some days he longed to cultivate more land and have himself called ‘zamindar’. Some friends got together: ‘You are thinking of buying land. You have no money to buy that much land, have you! We will tell you a trick, and you will get all the land you want,’ they said. Being a man of desire, he listened not with two ears but with twenty.
To while away the time, for the village gossip you are ready and keen; but when the tales of God are told so sweetly, why are you not attentive, O ears? Why are you not attentive, O ears?
When it comes to hearing good words, the ears are not attentive. When it comes to hearing bad words, they are ready. They fetch thousands of ears and put them on. Then this farmer listened attentively. ‘Tell me, I will surely do it,’ he said. ‘Leave this region and go to the Himālaya; you will get all the land you want,’ they said. He met the king of Himachal Pradesh. ‘Sir! I want land,’ he said. ‘My boy! How far have you come from?’ he said. ‘From the Āndhra country,’ he told him. How far away it is! ‘I shall certainly give it. Start at one place. From there, set out from seven in the morning, and however far you walk and come back by seven at night, all the land in between I shall give to you,’ he said. ‘Set out from one spot, and as much ground as you go round, that much land I shall give,’ he said. He was delighted. ‘If I eat tiffin I shall be heavy and unable to walk; I can run well and get still more land,’ he thought. He took nothing at all. Poor man! How desire leads one into ruin! He ran and ran. He ran until it came to a hundred acres. Coming back, he was some twenty feet from the place where he had started. Poor man, he grew thirsty. His heart seized up. He fell to the ground. He gave up his life. All the people who had crowded there came together: ‘O King! Poor man, he came so full of hope.