Once upon a time, four Brahmins lived in a village. They were very good friends. Three of them were great scholars whereas the fourth friend was illiterate but had practical knowledge.

One day, all of the friends decided to go to another country to earn wealth. One of them decided not to give anything to the fourth friend whatever he received from the king and said -"He is not a scholar. He has not read any scripture. He has only some practical knowledge that does not entitle him to receive rewards from the king." The second friend advised the fourth friend to return back, as he was not a scholar. The third friend however convinced both of them to allow him to accompany them, saying - "Friends! He too is our friend! We must not abandon him like this."

At last, all of them agreed to take him along. They proceeded on their journey. As they were passsing through a forest they saw some bones spread on the ground. They decided to test their knowledge. One of them collected the bones and errected the skeleton by the powers of his mantra. The second friend added flesh, skin and blood to that skeleton by the powers of his mantra. As the third friend was about to fuse new lease of life in that animal by the powers of his mantra, the fourth friend said - Stop! This seems to be a lion. Do not resurrect it back to life otherwise it will kill all of us." All the friends laughed at him and said that they would certainly test their knowledge.

When the fourth friend saw that his friends were adamant on resurrecting the lion, he climbed on a tree to save his life. As soon as the lion was brought back to life, he devoured all the three Brahmins. When the lion went away, the fourth friend got down from the tree and went back home.

LESSON- Knowledge without practical knowledge is useless.

After finishing his story the third friend who had discovered gold said to the fourth friend -
"A scholar who is devoid of practical knowledge is laughed at in the same manner as was the case was with the foolish Brahmin."

Chakradhar wanted to know about the foolish Brahmin.
The third friend whose name was Suvarnasiddhi narrated the following story -

The Foolish Wise Man