The Potter and the Painter

Many years ago there lived two friends, a potter and a painter. They worked very much but got little money for their work. Everything went very well between them till the painter, a very good worker, got a lot of money for a beautiful portrait he painted. The potter, a bad and lazy worker, did not like that. At first he asked the painter to give him some money. But the painter wanted the money for himself: He had a large family, the children wanted to eat, and his wife had no shoes. In the end, the potter thought of a very bad thing.

"Well," he said to himself, "I must teach my friend, the painter, a good lesson."

That night the potter slept very badly or did not sleep at all. He turned from side to side and thought what a good lesson he could teach the painter.

Early in the morning he went to the king. A lot of people stood in the hall. They all wanted to see the king. Time passed, but the king did not leave his rooms. Then music began to play and everybody fell down on the floor.

When the king passed by, the potter held up his head and said to the king, "My King, I know that you want a white elephant, like the one that only the old king, your father, had."

I am going to tell you how you can get one.

The king, very much pleased with the potter's words, told him to go on. And the potter went on:

"My friend, the painter, knows how to change any color into white." Tell him to come here and make your grey elephant white.

The king called his men and they ran to him. He told them to go and bring the painter. So very soon the painter stood before the king.

When the king saw the painter, he said to him, "Painter, somebody has told me that you know how to change the color of anything into white." I want you to make my grey elephant white. And remember, if you want to live, you must do it, and do it well."

When the painter heard the king's words, he understood everything.

"And may I ask you, my King, who told you this story?" said the painter.

"I am not going to answer your question, and you must not ask me anything," said the king.

The painter thought, "My last day has come because I cannot change the color of the elephant." The painter wanted to tell the king this, but suddenly he saw the potter's laughing face behind the people's backs.

"So that is your little game, my dear friend," he thought. "But before my head falls off my neck, I must teach you a lesson."

"All right, my King," the painter turned to the king. "I can change your elephant's color. But when I change the color of anything, I put it into water for a long time. And I have no pot for your elephant. It must be a very large pot."

"Potter," the king turned to the bad man, "you heard the painter's words, didn't you?" "Go and make a pot for him. A very large pot that can hold my elephant."

The potter wanted to get out of it, but too late, too late!

"What have I done?" he thought. "That's the end of me!" So he went to his workshop and began to make a large pot for the elephant. But who can make a pot like that? Of course, not our potter!

The pot fell to pieces the first time when the people carried it. It fell to pieces the second time when the workers put it, red-hot, into cold water. And it fell to pieces the third time when the elephant put its foot into it.

And so it went on and on. The painter watched the potter's work and only laughed to himself. For months and months the potter worked in his workshop. During all those months, he woke up early in the morning, went to his workshop and did not leave it till late at night. He did not sleep well, but thought about the pot and often cried at night.

"What a mistake I have made!" he repeated to himself. But one fine day, the elephant ran away to the woods. What a happy day for the potter! The painter taught the potter a good lesson, didn't he? And the potter never did a bad thing like that again to the end of his days.