*wit and intelligence is all that it takes to give you that winning edge. Let us see how the barber’s wife emerged victorious.
There was once a barber who was known as Clumsy-fingers. Try as he might, the poor man could never cuts have a man without leaving gashes on his face. Naturally, people stopped coming to him and the barber became extremely poor. The less he earned the more his wife and children suffered. His wife was irritated at having to put up with a stupid husband.
One day, clumsy fingers did not earn any money at all. He waited all day for customers but no one came. At the end of the day he had to face his wife the fact that there was no money in the house. She said angrily to her husband, `Why can’t you earn at least enough to feed us each day even if you can’t provide for any comfort? The pots have been scraped clean in the kitchen and there is nothing for us to eat tonight. I was hoping to buy some food with your earnings and now you tell me that you have made nothing all day.’ Then, as she stamped out of the room, she shouted. `If you can’t earn any money, then go and beg for some.’
The barber thought this was a good idea. But where was he to go in order to beg for money? He asked his wife where he should go. She thought for a moment and then said, `Why, the king is getting married today. Go to the palace and ask him for somethi9ng.’ clumsy-fingers nodded and set off.
On reaching the palace, he told the officers that he had a special request to make to the king. Ushered into the kings’ presence, he bowed respectfully and begged him to give him something. The king was amused and asked him what exactly he wanted. Clumsy-fingers suddenly realized that he had not asked his wife what he should beg for, so he repeated, `Just something, your? Majesty.’ the king laughed and ordered his minister to grant the barber some wasteland outside the city. The barber returned home delighted. `Well,’ asked his wife, `what did the king give you?’ `Some land outside the city,’ replied Clumsy –fingers with a smile. `Oh you foolish man,’ said his wife. `Since when have you become a farmer, asking for a piece of land? What are we going to do with it?
When anger had cooled a little, the barber’s wife called out to Clumsy-Fingers and they both went to see the land. It was a large patch of uneven ground. The poor woman shrank with horror at the thought of the amount of work they would have to put into plugging the land before they could plant anything on it. But she was never without an idea for long. She ordered her husband to imitate her movements and soon they were both walking slowly over the land, treading carefully, with their eyes on the ground, as if looking for something.
Whilst they were busy doing this, a band of robbers happened to pass that way. They curious to know what the barber and his wife were looking for. The leader of the band approached the wife and asked her if they had lost something. She pretended to be started by the man and quickly said, `Oh no, no. nothing at all.’ This made the robber even more suspicious and he tried to find out by phrasing his questions in various ways. But she was equally sharp –witted. After much questioning, she took the robber aside, made him swear that he would not tell anyone else what she was going to tell him and said, `May uncle died a week ago. Before he died, he told me that he had buried five pots of gold in this field. We are trying to see if we can find them. But please don’t tell a soul; else we shall lose our gold. The robber swore that he wouldn’t tell anyone and left. Soon the barber and his wife returned home, the wife in high spirits.
The barber could not understand why his wife was suddenly so pleased with the land. The next morning, they went back to look at the field. To their pleasant surprise, every inch of it had been dug. The barber’s wife chuckled with glee as she explained her trick to her husband. `I knew he would rush back and tell his friends he had heard. The poor things must have spent all night toiling away, digging up the field in order to find the pots of gold. Now all we have to be buying some grains of wheat and plant them.’
She went to the corn-merchant and bought the grain on credit and planted it. The harvest was magnificent, for the land had been really well- dug. The babe’s wife sold the grain for a large sum and they started living in great comfort.