The Three Bulls

Long ago, in a village, lived a young man. He fell in love with a beautiful young woman. He wanted to marry that woman. So, as was the custom in those days, the young man went to the woman’s father and asked for his daughter’s hand in marriage.

The woman’s father wanted to test the courage of the young man. The father said, “I will give you my daughter in marriage if you are able to pass in a certain test”. He added, “Come to my farm tomorrow morning. I will release three bulls one after the other. All you have to do is to touch the tail of any one of the bulls. Mind you, you have to touch the tail only. You cannot touch any other part of the bull”. The young man agreed.

The next day, the young man reached the farm. He was waiting at the gate of the farm for the bulls to be released. Soon, the gate of the farm was opened. The young man could see a large black bull was stomping inside. It was huge. It was more like a rhino than a bull. As soon as the black bull started running towards him, he felt nervous and queasy. He thought, “This is a large bull. If I try to touch it, it could kick me hard. I would be make pulp out of me. There are two more bulls to come after this. May be I should try the next one”. And he let the large bull get away.

After some time, the young man could see another red bull stomping inside the farm. It was not as large as the previous black bull. But it had two ferocious horns. The red bull was stomping the ground, raising a little storm, all the while tossing its head all around and jumping up and down. It displayed very aggressive behavior. The young man thought, “This bull is smaller that the previous one. So the next bull will be even smaller. Why to take risk of life. I still have one more chance and I will try it.” Thus, when the bull came running towards him, he let it go.

Finally the third bull came around. It was a white bull. It was built small. It had very small horns and looked very docile. The young man thought “This is my chance and I will catch the tail of this bull”. He positioned himself and got ready to catch the tail. The bull came running slowly towards him. Just as the bull reached near him, the young man stepped forward to catch its tail. But, alas, the white bull had no tail!

Thus, the young man could pass the test and could not marry the woman he wanted to.

In life, many times, we also let go of opportunities. Under various pretext and excuses, we forgo opportunities that life gives us. We say, we will take the next opportunity or the next one. But no one knows, whether the next opportunity will be the right one or not.