In a forest near a village there lived a guru and his disciple who spent all their time in prayer and meditation.

One day the guru decided to go on a long pilgrimage.

As he bid farewell to his disciple, the guru said, “My son, remember all that I have taught you and lead a simple life.”

“I will Gurudev!” the disciple replied as he lay himself down before his guru in respect.

The disciple’s possessions were very limited. He had only two loin clothes (kaupin) to wear. Every day he would wear one and wash the other.  As was the custom for ascetics, he begged at the village for his food.

One day, when he returned from the village, he saw a rat running off with a piece of his spare loin cloth in its mouth.  He quickly checked and sure enough, the spare loin cloth was full of holes!.

“Oh no!  I will have to beg at the village for another loin cloth. “ the disciple thought in dismay. 

So when he went begging for alms at the village the next day, he also asked for a loin cloth.

 “I have a new one,” the villager replied.  “I will give it to you Oh holy sage.”

The disciple gratefully accepted the loin cloth and decided that from then on he would dry his loin clothes on top of the hut so that the rats wouldn’t get to it.

But he was wrong.

When he returned from begging at the village the next day, he once again found that his laoin cloth had been torn up by the rats.  “I must get myself a cat in order to get rid of the rats,” the disciple decided.

So the disciple got a cat and the rats disappeared in no time.

Then he began to think,  “I must keep the cat well fed. She is doing such a good job!  I know! I will get a cow.”

So he got a cow from the benevolent villagers and took care of her. The cow was happy and so also the cat.

“I need straw to feed my cow,” the disciple began to think.  “I should cultivate the land around my hut, and when the grain is harvested I will have all the straw my cow would need.”

So he started to cultivate the land around his hut.  The land produced a good crop.  So now he needed a place to store the grain. He hired laborers to build barns for him.  The disciple found that his needs and his possessions kept growing and soon the hermitage where he lived was replaced by a lavish estate.  Living a luxurious life, the disciple decided to get married and raise a family.

One day his guru returned from his long pilgrimage.  “Have I come to the wrong place?” the guru thought as he looked around at the lavish estate.  Then finding that he was in the right place he then worried that a rich man must have driven his poor disciple away and built his estate where the hermitage used to be.

He saw one of the servants as called out to him, “My good man, an ascetic used to live here once. Do you know where he is now?”

The servant was taken aback.  “I... uh...” the servant stuttered.

Just then, the disciple heard his guru’s voice and rushed out to greet him.

“My son, what is all this?” the guru asked. “I left you leading the simple life of an ascetic. I return to find you surrounded by wealth and possessions. How did this happen?”

“Oh Gurudev,” the disciple said remorsefully.  “It all started with a single loin cloth. To protect the cloth from the rats I needed a cat and then there was no end to my needs. Forgive me, Gurudev.”

There is no end to our desires