The Singing Clockmaker

A century back, in a small house in Kolkata, there was a very humble clockmaker named Arun Roy. Even though he lived in a small house, he was an exceptionally good clockmaker. Anybody who wanted an exquisite but cheap clock would go to him. Arun was very kind. He would sing when he worked, making or repairing clocks keeping his window open so everyone could hear him. And everyone did. He was so melodious that people would gather under his window to listen to him. Though, not everyone was happy.

Next door was an extremely wealthy merchant named Gopal Chowdhury, who was very greedy. He also lived in a small house, not because he did not desire a large house, like Arun, but because he was very stingy and never liked to give away his money. He was very mean, and of his eccentricities, he would stay up all night to count his money and sleep all through the day. Unfortunately for him, Arun’s singing was so loud that he couldn’t go to sleep at all. He tried everything to go to sleep. He tried stuffing his ears with wax (earplugs weren’t invented then), sleeping in the room farthest from his neighbor’s house, and even covering his walls with cotton. All were in vain. Arun’s voice was too loud. It reached the point where Chowdhury considered moving across the city when he got a brilliant idea.

One day, when Arun was making a clock for a customer, Gopal came over carrying a large bag that made lots of noise. Without letting Arun talk, he shoved the bag at him, saying, “Please stop that infernal racket you call singing! I can’t get a second of sleep with your screeching in my ear.” Chowdhury was in and out before Roy could say anything. When Roy poured the bag’s contents onto his table, he was surprised to see a pile of hundreds of gold coins. After a moment of shock, he thought, “I have to find a safe place to hide these coins.” At first, he assumed he should put the gold, where he put most of his money, in a safe on his bedside table. But then he thought, “I shouldn’t put this gold there; if I get robbed, I could lose it.” So, he went around his house to find a place to keep his gold safe, but he always found fault in the areas. First, he tried the attic, but then he thought, “If I hide the gold in the attic, it might get wet.” When he put it in his chimney, he thought, “If I hide the gold in the chimney, it might get covered in soot.” When he put it in his chicken coop in his back yard, he thought, the chickens will get feathers and all over the gold.”

He got so anxious about his gold that he couldn’t work. His customers were unhappy that their clocks weren’t getting fixed or repaired. The people in his neighborhood weren’t happy that the singing they loved so much wasn’t there anymore. But the person who was the unhappiest was Arun Roy himself. It drove him crazy to find the right place to put his gold, but he couldn’t find it. Eventually, one day, he went to his neighbor’s house. He knocked on the door and said to Chowdhury’s annoyed face, “Take back your gold; I don’t need it; it has only caused me pain,” then he closed the door in Gopal’s face.

After that day everyone was happy. Arun’s customers continued to get exceedingly good clocks. The people in his neighborhood got to listen to his singing. But the most comfortable was Roy himself, making clocks for his customers. The only person unhappy was Gopal Chowdhury, as he still couldn’t get any sleep.