The folktale of a poor villager making a chair by breaking a granary is the backstory of a most common idiom among Sinhalese. This is indeed one of the best idiom stories from folktales around the world. This story provides a sense of humor, is a moral story and has an interesting narrative that visualizes ancient village culture in Sri Lanka. Whether you are seeking moral stories, folktale stories with moral lessons, stories for kids, or bedtime stories, this should be added to your list. Enjoy your storytelling time!
Once upon a time, there was a beautiful village. In that village, most of the people were farmers. Also, there were a blacksmith, a potter, a carpenter, and a healer. Among the farmers, there was a very poor man. He and his family lived in a very small house. A house made out of wooden sticks and clay with a rice straw roof. They did not have many household facilities. They could not afford to have things that went beyond the bare minimum.
This poor man and his wife were very good with others in the village. They had friends. Occasionally, their friends visited their house to hang out with them. The couple was very happy to have people at their home. They welcomed them and treated them with whatever they had. When their friends visit them, they serve them herbal tea and other homemade sweets. Meanwhile, they have nice conversations. But every time someone comes over, they get worried.
They did not have any chairs. Therefore, their visitors had to sit on the floor at the edge of the small front porch of their house. This made them worried. Some of their friends jokingly said things about them not having any chairs at home. The one who was worried the most was the wife of the villager. She reminded her husband to solve the issue many times. But nothing changed. The villager could not afford to have chairs made by the carpenter or make them himself. Because his cultivations did not give him a good harvest.
One day, one of their close friends visited them on a nice evening. They shared greetings with each other. The couple warmly welcomed the friend. Then the wife went to the kitchen and brought the guest a warm cup of cordial tea. Then she served it to their guest. The guest took the cup of corinder tea in his hand and looked around to sit. But there were no chairs.
Seeing the guest like that, the villager said, “Though we are not hungry, thanks to God, we do not have much here. If you don’t mind, you can sit here on the floor,” and sat on the floor at the edge of the verandah. The guest followed him.
After the guest left, the wife started to shout at her husband. “How many times have I told you to do something about this? We don’t even have one chair. Forget about the ones who live here. What about the people who come here? At least there is not a single chair to give when someone visits. What a shame to ask the guests to sit on the floor.” The wife released her embarrassment in words.
Listening to his wife’s complaints, the poor villager was upset. He said, “What am I to do? I can’t afford to pay the carpenter to make chairs. At least I don’t have wood planks. I can’t pay for both the carpenter and the wood. There, my crops don’t give me much harvest either. How am I supposed to make chairs?”.
Both had the same old complaint and the same old answers. For real, they were embarrassed by not having a chair at home, and they couldn’t afford a chair.
So, the villager kept thinking that night because he was very upset. He wanted to make a chair somehow. He thought about ways he could get wood planks. There, he remembered about their granary. Their granary was not in use for several seasons. They did not have much of a harvest to store at the granary. The small amount of grain they had was kept in bags in the kitchen. So, this poor villager thought that the granary had no use for them anymore.
The next morning, this villager broke some parts of their granary and took enough wood planks from it. Then he carried them to the carpenter in the village. In the evening, this villager came home with a big smile on his face, keeping a chair on his head. His wife was sitting on the floor, looking at eternity. She saw his husband coming home with a chair.
“Oh, honey!” the wife welcomed her husband. “Here, my lady, I brought a chair. Now we can sit on it. We can offer it to anyone who visits us. Don’t have to embarrass anymore!” The husband said it with pride and a smile on his face. “Neatly done. Nice!” The wife touched the chair and praised the craftsmanship. Just like that, the poor man got a chair at his home.
Soon after, good rainfall happened, and crops grew a lot better. So they got a good harvest. The poor villager and his wife could not harvest their paddy fields and take rice bags home alone. So, the villager asked some of his friends to help him out. Meanwhile, the wife prepared meals for all of them. At the end of the harvesting day, the villager had all of his rice bags loaded in his front yard. Because they broke the granary. However, they were happy.
The villager kept the chair on the front porch of the house and sat on it. His wife came and leaned onto the chair. They were both looking at their good harvest. The couple was so happy. Because they had a good harvest. And they finally have a chair.
Suddenly, rain started to fall. The couple hurried to take their harvest inside the home. At that time, there were no metal roofing sheets, and there was no polythene. So they had nothing to cover the rice bags. They took as much as they could get inside. But most of the bags were out there.
If their granary wasn’t broken, they could have filled it with grains and saved them from the rain. But they broke it and made a chair.
Now the only thing they could do was sit on that chair and watch their harvest destroyed by rainwater, regretting what they did.
The next day, everyone in the village got the news about what happened to this village’s harvest. From that day onward, when someone is doing or has done something less valuable, scarifying something that has more value, the Sinhalese started to say, “Atuwa Kadaa Putuwa Heduwa Wagey.” That means, like, making the chair break the granary.