Editor's note: For the fifth year, WBOI has partnered with students at Towles New Tech Middle School for the "Moral of the Story Project." In the classroom, students learn about the teachings of Hinduism and Buddhism, focusing on the Jataka tales, which are the tales about how Buddha became enlightened. Students will learn about these tales along with literary devices and narrative story telling. With the assistance of WBOI, a select group of students will then create podcasts of their stories.
Thank you Tia McFarthing and Fort Wayne Community Schools for including WBOI in this partnership.
The Wise Man on the Hill was written and narrated by Tessa Chesney-Jordan. This podcast was produced by Rob Martinez.
Long ago, there was a wise man who lived on top of a hill. The hill was surrounded by a lush forest that had a winding river. It looked straight out of “Jungle Book”. The forest had everything the Wise Man needed. He used the resources from the forest but only took what he needed and did not hunt any of the animals that lived there. He lived a humble yet happy life.
After a while, other people heard about the hill. They heard about the forest’s abundance in resources and wanted to move there too. They were moths to a light. They built houses, roads, and farms on the hill. The Wise Man did not want so many people to move there, as he was an introverted person, but saw nothing wrong with others reaping the benefits of the forest.
One day, the Wise Man gathered a small crowd and told them, “Be careful not to take too much from the forest. We rely on it, so we must not destroy it. Do not go overboard.”
But the villagers had very vain values and took his words with a grain of salt.They took and took from the forest. The Wise Man had to watch as the forest was ravaged. The fruits were eaten, the deer were hunted, the trees were cut down, and the river was polluted. The Wise Man could not fix all of the damage. He didn’t know what to do.
He came to the villagers and yelled, “Why did you not heed my warning? Look at the damage you caused,”
But the villagers just rolled their eyes and ignored him. They were spoiled with all the luxuries they would never need, so they decided to not care about anything that they caused. No one seemed worried besides the Wise Man.
One evening, everyone was getting ready to end the day. People were tying up their cattle, turning off their lights, and walking home. The chatter of people died down as the Moon began to rise in the sky. No one noticed the shadow of a tiger slinking towards the village.
His fur was as orange as the sunset and his stripes were as dark as the night. The Tiger prowled up to one of the people walking home from working his farm and grabbed him by the leg! The person screamed in agony, alerting much of the village. They ran out of their houses to see what was happening. They shouted and prodded at the Tiger, but nothing worked.
“Go get the Wise Man! He’ll know what to do!” demanded one of the villagers.
He had not paid much attention to the commotion because they were often this loud, just not usually this late. Someone ran to retrieve him, through the dirt roads. The Wise Man was woken up and immediately hurried to the scene.
“Oh, Tiger why are you doing this?” he asked desperately.
“You have hunted billions of the deer I prey on and I now have no food,” The Tiger retorted, “I need food so I must eat one of you.”
Please spare him!” one of the villagers begged.
“We now understand the destruction we’ve caused. We apologize and would like to split a deal,” suggested the Wise Man.
“What is the deal?”
“We will give you one cattle every two weeks until the forest thrives again if you do not terrorize us.”
BAM! The Tiger dropped the villager.
“Do you really all agree to help the forest return to its former glory?”
The villagers all nodded their heads in agreement and without a word, the Tiger slunk back into the forest.
Every villager now works hard to make sure they cause no harm to the world around them. They learned to be resourceful, just like the Wise Man. The Tiger never bothered them again and they lived a humble, yet happy life.
Living ethically will help not only you, but the world around you.