The old farmer was ailing. He wanted his three sons to come closer to him and listen to what he was waiting to tell them.
"Now I am too old to farm the land. But I want you to take hold of what I was doing all my life." Said the old farmer in his feeble voice.
The three sons were too busy to hear what their father wanted to say.
"Are you all impatient to give me a hearing?" Asked the father.
"No, we have come here to listen to you, dear father." Said the eldest son, a clerk in a state ministry.
"I am happy that my eldest son has come to see me. But I thought you will do a better job as a farmer. Never mind, you are still too young. You may become one in future, I am sure."
Then the chance came for the second son.
"Dear father I have also come to see you."
"Oh I am quite happy to see you here."
The second son was a driver serving for a businessman in the city.
"One fine day you are going to be a farmer like your father." Said the ailing father of the second son, who was eagerly waiting to hear what he has to say.
"Where is my youngest son?"
"I am here."
"Oh, how nice to see you."
The youngest son was jobless. He also failed to continue his higher studies due to his own fault. He was hanging around with a group of youngsters who were merrymakers all the time.
They had ample time to enjoy with music, dance and other forms of entertainment. "I am sure you are going to be a better citizen one fine day." The ailing father touched his son's hands.
"You are the youngest in the family. You got to help yourself as well as your brothers." All the three sons were waiting to hear what their father is going to say.
"Why did you call three of us here so suddenly, father?" Asked the eldest son.
"Do you know I have a small plot of land untilled so far?"
The three sons looked at the faces of each other not quite getting the message. The father carried on.
"The small plot of land lies closer to the stream flowing at the border of our land. It is called Randeniya. If you start tilling there - it has fertile soil too - one fine day you will come across a big pot of gold buried. But you got to be very careful not to utter a word to anybody else. Start tilling the soil soon after I pass away. Do you hear me out?"
"Yes father," they all said in a single tone.
"Listen to me carefully, I may not be able to say this again."
"We are listening." The sons said.
"I want you to till the land all by yourself without whispering a single word of what I say. There will be a number of elder farmer, they will come to your help. Get their help as much as you can. Help yourself and help them whenever possible. When you get the pot of gold, make sure you share it among yourselves and continue the work you started."
The three sons looked determined to start the tilling of the land as soon as possible. As time passed, the father died. They performed all the funeral rituals in the best possible manner. The eldest son called his two brothers.
"Now we must start work on what our father said. We must not waste time."
They started tilling the land. The villagers were simply surprised and wanted to help them. They simply could not understand how they have come to do the work so suddenly.
"It is the wish of our father," said the eldest, responding to villagers.
"Oh your father was a great farmer." Said some of the elderly villagers.
"He never had his barn empty." Said another.
As time passed, they came to know the value of the earth. They cultivated the land with grains and yielded a harvest.
"What about the pot of gold? We never found it." Said the eldest.
"We have got more wealth than a just a pot of gold." Said the second brother.
The youngest nodded his head and said: "Perhaps this land itself is the pot of gold. It is named Randeniya, the golden dale."
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