Joyo and his Abacus

Joyo and his Abacus             

     Once there was a boy called Joyo.  On his fifth birthday, his paternal grandfather gave him an abacus.  He told Joyo to take good care of it as it was an extraordinary abacus.

        Joyo liked the present very much.  He always brought it along wherever he went.  He even put it beside him when he was sleeping.  He really believed that his abacus had magic power capable of giving him protection.

        The abacus was an antique.  It was considered a family treasure.  It was made about two hundred years ago.   It was passed down from one generation to another generation.  For many generations, Joyo’s forefather used it for counting in business.   Joyo called it an ancient calculator.

        Joyo liked to shake his abacus to make the beads cluck to create some noise whenever he was scared.   At one time,  he shook it so vigorously that he even scared the burglars away.

        It was said that 200 years ago, his forefather called Chulee was fascinated by an abacus a businessman was using in counting.   Since then he started to save money to buy the required materials for the making of the abacus.  It took him two years to complete the work.

        The abacus proved to be very useful to him.  He used it to do counting in business.  He could do it fast and accurately.    As time passed, he found that it seemed to have vested with some kind of power.  As far as honesty was concerned, it had the power to express.

        At one time, Chulee was dealing business with an old man.   A dishonest thought occurred to him.  He wanted to cheat the old man.    When he was moving the beads in counting, his index finger got wedged in the rows of the beads.  He tried to dislodge but failed.  In his panic, he nearly screamed out for help.  But he kept cool and started praying for forgiveness in silence.

        He looked at the old man and he saw the brightness in his eyes.  The old man seemed to know the happening.  The old man touched his shoulder.    To his astonishment , he could detach his index finger from the bite of the beads.   Chulee flushed all over and bowed in shame.   The old man took the good and walked away slowly and disappeared suddenly.

        Without a second thought,  Chulee quickly knelt down and thanked the god for teaching a lesson.  Since then, Chulee upheld the principle of honest and tried to be as honest as possible.  He chose to believe “Honesty is the best policy.”   He might not be 100% honest but he could be as honest as possible.  

        As years passing by, Joyo found out more and more stories associated with the abacus.

(I composed this story years ago.)