Story 51 - A Mistaken way of Arguing

There was an oil-vender in India. He kept in his house a very beautiful parrot. One day this oil-vender left his shop and went out to some place. His servant also went out on some other errand. The parrot was there in the shop. In the absence of the oil-vender, there came up a big cat. At the sight of the cat the parrot got frightened; the parrot was in the cage but it got frightened and jumped up; the parrot fluttered his wings and jumped this way and that way until the cage' which was hanging on the wall, slipped down, and fell upon ajar full of very precious oil. The jar was broken and all the oil was spilt. After a while came up the oil-vender, and being very angry, he lost his temper, seeing that his precious oil was spilt. He got annoyed with the parrot; he thought that the parrot had done some mischief, he was beyond himself with rage and could not keep his temper because the parrot had thrown down the cage upon the jar and had cost him a loss of about Rs. 50/- He opened the door of the cage and just snatched all the plumes from the head of the parrot. The parrot was made bald; no crest was left on its head; the head of the parrot was bleeding. The parrot did neither speak nor entertain the master for two weeks. The master was very sorry for what he had done. After two weeks there came a customer to the oil-vender's shop. This customer was bare-headed at that time, and this man, this customer, was also baldheaded. The parrot laughed a hearty laugh; the parrot laughed; the parrot was very happy to see another companion. Then the master asked the parrot what was the cause of his hilarity, what made him full of joy, and the parrot said, "Oh, I thank God, I am not the only servant of an oil-vender. This man also must have been servant of an oil-vender, otherwise how could he lose the hair on his head, and how could he become bald if he had not been the servant of an oil-vender?"

Exactly the same is the kind of reasoning some pepole employ. They think that all the works they perform, all the duties they discharge, everything they do is with some kind of motive or other. They do with some kind of selfish desire or premeditation or other. They say that God created the world; He also must have done that with some kind of motive or other; He must also have done with some kind of desire or other; He also must have done that with some kind of premeditation or other. This is a mistaken way of arguing.

MORAL: Because people do things generally with a selfish motive, so they impute a selfish motive to God also in creating the world. This is a mistaken way of argument,

Vol. 3 (106-107)