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chat."
The friend said, "Oh no, wouldn't it be better if I were to come with you? Yet my clothes are very dirty. If you can just give me something fresh, I will change and come along with you."
Sometime before, the king had given the farmer some valuable clothes and the farmer had been saving them for some grand occasion. Joyfully, he brought them out. His friend put on the precious coat, the turban, the dhoti and the beautiful shoes. He looked like the king himself. Looking at his friend, the farmer felt a bit jealous; in comparison he looked like a servant. He began to wonder if he had made a mistake, giving away his best outfit, and he began to feel inferior. Now everyone would look at his friend, he thought, and he would look like an attendant, like a servant.
He tried to calm his mind by thinking of himself as a good friend and as a man of God. He would think only of God and of noble things, he decided. "After all, of what importance is a fine coat or an expensive turban?" But the more he tried to reason with himself, the more the coat and the turban encroached on his mind.
On the way, although they were walking together, passers-by only looked at his friend; nobody noticed the farmer. He began to feel depressed. He chatted with his friend, but inside he was thinking about nothing else but that coat and turban!
They reached the house they were intending to visit and he introduced his friend: "This is my friend, a childhood friend. He is a very lovely man." And suddenly he blurted, "And the clothes? They are mine!"
The friend was stunned. Their hosts were also surprised. He realized as well that the remark had been uncalled for, but then it was too late. He regretted his blunder and reproached himself inwardly.
Coming out of the house, he apologized to his friend.
The friend said, "I was thunderstruck. How could you say something like that?"
The farmer said, "Sorry. It was just my tongue. I made a mistake."
But the tongue never lies. Words only pop out of one's mouth if there is something on one's mind; the tongue never makes a mistake. He said, "Forgive me. How such a thing was uttered, I
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