The Mystifying Ring of The Bell

Once upon a time, there was a temple in the outer edge of a village. There was a silver bell hanging in that temple. Villagers regarded it as a sacred and m auspicious bell. They come to worship in the temple believing that by ringing the bell, they could wash all their sins.

One night when the entire village was asleep, a thief came to the temple. His eyes fell on the bell. He thought that he could get a good sum by selling it in the town. Thus, he stole the bell and went away. As he was coming out of the forest, a tiger attacked on him. The thief ran to save his life leaving behind the bell in the forest.

Next day when the villagers saw that there was no sacred bell, all were shocked. They were very sad at the loss of the bell. That day in the afternoon, suddenly the ringing of the bell was heard. The villagers felt very happy: They started saying that God must have punished the thief for his doings. They ran towards the direction from where the ringing was heard. Suddenly the ringing of the bell stopped. Within a few minutes, the bell started ringing again, but this time from another direction. The villagers got confused as sometimes it rang from the east and sometime from the west. The villagers got scared and started wondering that the bell was stolen by a demon who wanted to trouble them. Some other villagers believed that God Himself had taken the bell away because He was very angry with them for their bad deeds. They thought that it was the warning against some sudden event that was going to occur. All of them were frightened at this thought and started praying to God, asking him for his pity.

There was a clever boy among the frightened villagers. He wanted to find out the truth. He decided to search the bell. He followed the noise of the bell and kept on going towards the forest. After an enthusiastic search, at last the boy found the bell. A monkey was enjoying playing with it. It was jumping from one branch of the tree to another carrying the bell. This was the reason that the sound of the bell was being heard from different directions.

The boy wanted to take the bell from the monkey. Suddenly an idea struck him. He had some peanuts in his pockets. He took them out. The monkey on seeing the peanuts climbed down the tree, leaving the bell aside. While the monkey was busy eating the peanuts, the boy slowly picked up the bell and ran away.

After reaching the village, the boy narrated to the villagers of how he had found the bell in the forest and that a monkey was actually playing with it. The villagers were relieved to find their sacred bell. They praised the boy for bringing their bell back. They hanged the bell in the temple and promised to safeguard it in future.