A Mahajan (merchant) had four sons. His first son was named Sadhu, the second was Radhu, the third was called Madhu and the youngest son was Bidhu. Throughout his life, Mahajan worked hard and had accumulated a lot of wealth so he hoped after his death, his sons could live as a united happy family. He did not wish his property to be divided.

Mahajan was getting old and he knew his death was near. He told his sons his wish and told but if ever there is a situation where they need to divide the property, they should go to their uncle as he would give everyone a fair share, his sons agreed. Soon, as Mahajan expected, he passed away and his property was passed down to his children.

All the four sons succeeded their father’s business. Sadhu was good at math which earned his enough money while the Radhu handled the legal matters attracting many customers. On the other hand, Madhu and Bidhu cultivated the family land, doing physical labor which was exhausting.

Madhu and Bidhu wife felt the work and income was unfair, complaining to their husbands many times. At first they did not care but slowly they also felt the work was unfair and approached their brother for the division of property. Sadhu and Radhu were sad but they agreed and all four brother went to their uncle.

The uncle welcomed them while handing them water and food, knowing it was a tiring journey. He was not surprised to hear the reason for their visit, he told them, “I saw in my dreams, you all were coming and I know the reason. I will divide the property between you all but before that we, along with your wives should to Jagannath Temple and get God’s blessing.”

The brothers agreed and all of them set off together for the journey. After walking some distance, the uncle suggested they should take a short break and buy something to eat. They took out their money bag only to find all money in the bag gone, everyone panicked. How will travel rest of the journey and travel back?

The uncle suggested, “We could earn money and buy something to eat”. All the four brothers went in different direction to find work. Bidhu, the youngest brother came across a man having difficulty ploughing the field and the man looked untrained. Bidhu approached him and said he could help for which he could pay him.

The man was happy with the idea and gave him some rice and vegetable in return. Bidhu hurried back to where they were staying. The third brother, Madhu heard a group of people discussing about paddy field. The land was water logged and they could not grow the rice but they still have to pay the taxes to the King.   

Madhu replied, “I will help you solve the problem, what will pay with?”

“I will give you ten silver coin.” The landowner said. Madhu was satisfied and told them how to solve the problem. While the second brother, Radhu found a man sitting under the tree. The man told him, “I have three brothers and our father’s property was divided into four parts after his death. Each of us own one part but the family’s cat could not be divided so we decided, one leg of the cat is owned by each of us.”

“Suddenly, one day the cat fell and got injured, the leg I owned was injured and I took care of it. I soaked the bandage in the oil and wrapped it around its leg. While it was resting near fire, the bandage got on fire and cat ran out scared. The hay caught fire and the fire grew, burning down few houses.”

The man signed and continued, “The neighbors blamed me and the Panchayat ruled I need to pay for the damage as the damaged leg belonged to me. Where would I get so much money? I don’t know what to do.”

Radhu agreed to help him in exchange of five hundred silver coins. Radhu and the man went to meet the other villagers. Radhu first listened to everyone’s complaint then addressed the crowd, “The fire was caused by the cat so the damage should be paid by the owner certainly. But the cat did not run around by the bandaged leg but by the three other good legs, so the fire was spread by the three good legs.”

Everyone felt the statement was reasonable. Radhu continued, “Therefore, the damage should not be borne by the owner of damaged leg but the owner of three good legs.” The man was filled relief when the Panchayat ruled the three brothers to pay the damage. The man handed Radhu five hundred silver coins happily.

Sadhu, the eldest son had a found a work to help a minister. The minister was troubled because he could not find the weight of the elephant and the King would sentence him to death if he could not give the answer next morning. Sadhu assured him, he would help and the minister would give him thousand gold coins.

Sadhu asked servants to place the elephant on the boat and marked the level before taking out the elephant and filling the boat with the sand. Once the sand reached the mark, he asked the sand to be taken out and weighted. Thus, he found the answer for the minister.

The minister was overjoyed and rewarded him the gold coins. All the brother came back and the uncle calculated each brother’s earning, “You all can see the difference in the money. Do you still want to divide the property?” Everyone understood and stopped asking for property division.

Suddenly, the uncle took out money that should be gone and smiled, “I actually hid the money so you could see the result yourself.”