The moral story of a golden tap.

A rich man built a huge house. But his bother-in-law was not impressed. “This may be the biggest house in this town. But there are bigger houses in other places,” he said. The rich man added a beautiful garden in front. But his bother-in-law was still not impressed. “I’ve seen houses with gardens elsewhere,” he said. The rich man built fountains in the garden. But his bother-in-law was not impressed. “There are so many fountains in Mysuru,” he said.

The rich man was worried. He wanted to invite the Maharaja to his house. But the Maharaja would not visit an ordinary house. What could he do to make his house special? His brother-in-law gave him an idea; “I’ve seen many wonderful houses, but nowhere have I seen a house with golden taps, not even in the Mysuru Maharaja’s palace.”

The rich man was now happy. He employed the best goldsmith in town to fix a golden tap in the garden. The Maharaja agreed to inaugurate the golden tap and the date was fixed. A band of highly skilled goldsmiths worked day and night and the golden tap was finally ready. On the day the Maharaja arrived, thousands of people gathered at the rich man’s house. The rich man welcomed the Maharaja and took him straight to the golden tap, which was covered with a silk cloth. The Maharaja pushed the cloth aside. There it was — the golden tap.

image source katha kids
The Maharaja smiled and turned the tap on. To his surprise, no water came from the tap. He turned the tap on harder. But there was no sign of water. The rich man apologized. His engineers examined the tap. They found nothing wrong with it. Yet, there was no sign of water. The Maharaja frowned. The rich man panicked. The brother-in-law was puzzled. Then, a small boy shouted, “The tap is not connected to the water pipe!” The engineers were startled. Everyone was so excited by the golden tap that they forgot to connect it to the ordinary pipe that brought water! The engineer hurriedly connected the tap to the pipe and water started flowing out of the tap. Everybody clapped.

“What if the tap is golden,” shouted the little boy, “What we want is water to drink, not gold to eat!”
“What this little fellow says is true,” the Maharaja said when he took leave of the rich man, “Think about it.”