A Drop of Honey

Many
years ago somewhere in the southern tip of India there lived a hunter.
He hunted wild animals or birds for their flesh and skin and would sell
them to the village market. At times if he had luck he would find
fruits, berries or even honey.

One morning the hunter started from home early. He was accompanied by bhola his dog, a dagger he always kept with himself, his bow and arrows and a bhinstee.
He had to start early to get a good catch. But the whole day he scanned
through the whole forest without any luck. He was so desperate, it did
not occur to him that it was getting dark. Black clouds were enveloping
the sky and in no time it started pouring.

The hunter, seeing no other alternaive, ran towards a den and somehow
managed to save himself from the rain. Hunger and fatigue had the
better of him and he fell asleep. The next morning he woke up and tried
to scan the den. A buzzing sound drew his attention and he looked up at
a distance to see a bee hive, its bosom swelled with the treasure it
hid inside.

The hunter immediately drew his dagger and with the expertise of a
seasoned honey gatherer cut the hive and gathered almost all the honey
into his leather pouch, the bhinstee. He did not take all of it. He had the kind heart and an intelligent mind to leave some honey for its rightful owners the bees.

It was going to a good day for him, some money to splurge and some handia to have at night. Some meat for bhola too. He quickly packed his dagger, picked his belongings, shoulderd the bhinstee and started towards the village market. He had to reach the village grocery store-keeper before the honey fermented.

At the shop the shopkeeper meticulously transferred the honey from the bhinstee
into a jar, but somehow a drop spilled into the floor. Few ants were
immediately drawn towards it. A bird was watching the whole proceeding
from a tree top. It swooped to feast on those hapless ants. The
shopkeeper had a pet cat which immediately pounced on the bird. Seeing
its eternal enemy, bhola
the dog pounced on the cat. Seeing such a brutal end to his cat the
shopkeeper, all in rage took out a stick and craked the poor dog’s
skull into two. The hunter immediately got up, pulled out his dagger
and ripped apart the shopkeepers heart. Then it dawned upon him the
brutality of his act. So he ran away.

But being from neighbouring villages the news spread like wild fire.
The villagers clashed with each other and led to a lot of bloodbath.
All this for a drop of honey.

PS: Nobody knows what happened to the honey. But surely, it was not meant for either the hunter or the shopkeeper.