The Village Chief

2 The Village Chief

Once upon a time, there ruled a king whom all his subjects loved and respected. The king had a clever minister who pleased him very much. To show his appreciation, the king appointed him chief of a remote village. The duty of the chief was to represent the king and collect the king's taxes from the villagers.

Before long, the chief was completely accepted by the villagers. Since he had been sent by the king, they respected him highly. They came to trust him as much as if he had been born among them.

The clever chief was also very greedy, Collecting the king's taxes was not enough reward for him. He befriended a gang of bandits who wanted to rob the villagers of their wealth. He thought of a plan to make himself rich by helping the bandits.

The chief said to the robbers, "I will take all the villagers to the fair of the other village across the jungle. This will be easy for me, since they trust me as one of their own. I will keep them busy for the day, while you invade the village and rob everything of value. I will make them beat the drums on our way back to the village. Carry everything away before I come back with them. In return, you must give me half of all the loot." The bandits agreed, and a day was set.

When the day arrived, the chief assembled all the villagers and led them to the fair of the other village across the jungle. According to the plan, the bandits entered the unprotected village.

It just so happened that on that very same day a travelling merchant came to the village to trade his goods. When he saw the bandits, he stayed out of sight From his hiding place he saw that the bandits stole everything of value they could find. They ate whatever food was there in the houses and also killed many harmless animals. After creating a complete mess in the village, the gang collected all their stolen goods.

At the end of the day, the chief ordered the villagers to make a lot of noise by beating the drums as they walked back towards the village. On hearing the sound of the beating drums, the bandits made their escape.

The village people were shocked to see the condition of their village They soon found out that they all had been robbed and most of their animals were dead. This made them very sad.

The travelling merchant came out of his hiding place and appeared before the disheartened villagers. He said to them, "This village chief has betrayed your trust in him. He must be a partner of the gang of bandits who invaded the village."

The villagers refused to believe the travelling merchant and asked,

"What makes you so sure that the chief is responsible for what happened?" The travelling merchant said, "He made you beat the drums as loudly as possible. The beating drums alerted the bandits and they left the village before you returned. Can't you see that he made you beat the drums so that the bandits can know that you are coming?"

The senior members of the village decide to go to the king for justice. When the king heard the story, he ordered his soldiers to kill the treacherous chief