Salty Liquor (Foolishness)

Once upon a time, there was a tavern owner in Benares. He had a hardworking bartender who was always inventing new ways of doing things.

One hot day, the tavern owner wanted to take a bath in a nearby river. So he put the bartender in charge of the tavern while he was away.

Now, the bartender wondered why most of the customers always take a bit of salt after drinking their alcohol. Not wishing to demonstrate his ignorance, he never bothered to ask them why they did this. He did not know that they ate the salt in order to remove the aftertaste of the liquor.

Thinking the customers ate the salt to make the liquor taste good, he wondered why tavern did not add salt to their liquor. He decided that if he did this, the business would make more money, and the tavern owner would be very pleased. So he added salt to all the liquor !

When the owner returned from his dip in the river, he found his tavern empty of customers and all his liquor runied. He recounted this story to his friend, and adviser to the king. "The ignorant, wishing to do good ofter cannot help but cause harm instead," said the advser.

The Moral is >>> The best intentions are no excuse for ignorance.