The idiom story “Like the Poles Cut for the River” from Sinhalese folklore is one of the funny folktales with moral lessons. It is a short story that includes simple moral lessons and depicts real-life situations and the characteristics of people in real life. And also, if you are looking for short, funny stories for kids, moral stories for kids or short bedtime stories for kids, this might be a good candidate.
Once upon a time, there was a family. The father, the mother, and the son. The land they lived on was quite big and they had grown crops on it. They got a good harvest too. But the problem was that they constantly got animals coming and eating out their crops. They did not have a good fence around the land.
So, one day, the father was about to go cut down some trees to use as fence posts. Seeing his father go there, the son asked where he was getting ready to go. The father said that he is going to cut down some trees and bring the logs to establish a fence around the land.
The son wanted to join. The father did not like the son coming with him, as the son often does foolish things. Therefore he said no. The man asked his son to stay at home and look help his mother. But the son kept begging him to take him with him. At the end, the father changed his mind and let the son join him. But the father made his son promise that he would not do anything silly and always be smart.
The father and son walked uphill through the forest, finding suitable trees to use as poles for the fence. Most of the trees were in the nearby were either already cut down by men or just not big enough for their need. So they had to walk quite far from home uphil into the jungle.
On the way through the forest, the son started asking a lot of questions about the things he sees. The father was so mindful about the forest so he did not care to reply to his son. The forest was a dangerous place. So he was on alert. But the son kept asking questions. Meanwhile, they were walking nearby a river. The son asked to where the river flows. The father did not answered. He was just minding about walking in the middle of the forest. But, the son kept asking the same question, “to where this river flows?”. Already irritated by his questions, father replied, “This river flows near your home. Now stay quiet”. The son was satisfied with the answer tho it was just an asnwer his father gave to shut him up.
The forest uphill from the river bank was a deep thick forest. There, they could find plenty of trees just good enough for their need. So, the father decided to cut down trees from there.
The father started cutting down the trees. After he cut down a few, he asked the son to collect the logs. The father asked the son only to collect the logs he cut down and make a pile of logs so that they could easily carry them later from one place. Meanwhile, the father continued to cut down trees, cleaned up the branches and left them for his son to collect.
In the evening, the father came out of the forest to see where his son was. The father looked around. But there wasn’t a pile of logs. So, he asked his son, “Where are the poles?”
“Father, from here to our home, it’s a long distance, isn’t it?” The son gave him a reply with a question.
“Yes. So?” the father replied.
“So, taking the logs will be really hard work to do, right?” the son asked.
“Yes. It is going to be tough. However, where are the logs?” The father asked
“Well, I found a way to take the logs easily. I put them in the river. Since this river is going near our home, we can take the logs from there,” the son replied.
The father kept his hand on his head and said, “Oh god!”.
All the work he did all day had gone. It is way easier to cut down trees again than to recover the logs from a river that flows. The foolish son had done something silly, thinking he was being smart. That day onwards, when someone’s hard work is wasted or being wasted, the Sinhalese say, “Gagata Ini Kepuwa Wagey.” It means ‘like cutting wooden poles for the river’ in the meaning of “such a waste!”.