A foolish man!

Shiromani literally means "the best/foremost one." Once, there lived a servant in a wealthy family who shared this name.

However, Shiromani was a man who was utterly mismatched with his name. Yet, the master of the house felt compassion for him because he was the son of Ammini, who had worked diligently in the family household for her entire lifetime before retiring.

Despite his compassion, scolding Shiromani for his lack of intelligence became a habit for the master.

One time, Shiromani returned from the market carrying a bundle of firewood. He asked the master, "Master, could you hold the firewood while I lower it?"

The master burst out laughing and said, "You idiot, just drop it!"

The next day, Shiromani came from the market carrying a basket full of clay pots and pans on his head. The master rushed out to help him place it down gently.

"Thud!" In the exact manner he had dropped the firewood, the earthen pots were dropped, shattering into pieces!

The angry master then said, "If you had brought the pots in our pushcart, we wouldn't have suffered this loss!"

The following day, Shiromani went to the market with the pushcart. His only purchase was a few boxes of matches. He brought them back in the pushcart.

Again, the master said, "You fool, why the pushcart for matches? Couldn't you have just carried them in your pocket?"

The day after that, he was sent to buy butter. However, he didn't take a container. He poured the butter he bought at the market directly into his pocket and brought it back!

On another day, when he returned with coconuts, some of them were unripe. The master showed him, "You should shake the coconut like this and check to make sure it's fully ripe before you buy it."

The next day, Shiromani bought 50 eggs and came home. The master asked, "Did the vendor trick you by giving you stale eggs?"

"No, Master. I will show you that they are good."

Just like he had been shown to shake the coconuts, Shiromani violently shook the entire bag of eggs! Most of the eggs were smashed!

Another day, he brought back a collection of plant saplings from the market, but they had all withered away.

The master told him, "The plants wouldn't have perished if you had carried them soaked in a little water."

Shiromani paid attention. The next day, he returned with a bag of sugar, which he had soaked in water. The sight of the bag shocked the master, as the sugar had completely dissolved!

One day, after the master cut his leg, the village doctor came and applied medicine to the wound, wrapping it tightly with a piece of cloth. The master then told Shiromani, "Do you understand how to bandage a wound now?"

But later that day, the master cut himself on the throat while shaving. Immediately, Shiromani rushed over and attempted to wrap a piece of cloth tightly around the master's neck. The master chased him away with a beating.

At one point, there was a severe rat problem in the household, so Shiromani bought a cane trap to catch the rats. However, he had trouble opening and closing its door.

"When you buy a cage, you must first check if it opens well, and then check if it closes well," the master instructed.

The following week, Shiromani returned from the market with a parrot in a cage to hang on the veranda.

The master asked, "Did you check if the birdcage opens and closes well, you fool?"

In that instant, Shiromani opened the cage door to show the master, and the parrot flew away, escaping him!

The next week, after Shiromani bought jaggery, the master tasted a small piece. He commented, "You should taste the food before you buy it. If you had, would you have bought something this tasteless?"

During all this, the family members often urged, "You must send him away."

The master would always reply, "Have you forgotten the years his mother worked for us?"

Eventually, the master decided to eliminate the rats with rat poison. He sent Shiromani to the market to buy it. On his way back, Shiromani muttered to himself, "I wonder if this has any taste? If it's tasteless, will the rats eat it?"

Shiromani ate a little of the rat poison! He collapsed on the earthen path and died!

Upon hearing the news, the family members remarked, "That idiot Shiromani's life ended just like that!"