6. “Cheaters Never Prosper” Proverb origin and meaning.

Cheaters Never Prosper Meaning: History and experience tell us that anyone who tries to covet what belongs to others never lives happily and always suffers for their misdeeds.

Those who conspire to cheat others never prosper and always end up being punished. Here the proverb does not necessarily point out material things alone.

Cheating here could be symbolic of broken promises, breach of agreement, and lack of commitment.

Cheaters Never Prosper, the origin story

Gokul and Nanda were two poor friends who lived in a small village. One day they decided to try their luck in the city and went in search of a job. Fortunately, they were able to find good jobs and earned a lot of money.

They decided to return to their village. Gokul was an evil-minded man who plotted to steal his friend’s money.

As they neared their village, Gokul told Nanda, “It is not safe to carry so much money. We will be robbed by thieves. So let us hide the money safely somewhere and take it later.”

Nanda was a good soul and trusted his friend and readily agreed. They hid the money under a tree and went home. A few days later Gokul returned, dug out all the money, and quietly took it home.

One day he went to Nanda’s house and told him that he wanted some money and asked him to accompany him to the secret tree. When they dug the pit they found the money had gone.

Each accused the other of fraud and finally, the matter was taken to court. The judges decided to visit the tree since it was the only witness.

Meanwhile, Gokul hatched a wicked plan. He requested his father to sit in the hollow of the tree and asked him to pretend like the voice of the tree.

When the judges came and requested the tree to name the thief, the tree named Nanda as the culprit much to the astonishment of the entire village. But Nanda suspected foul play.

So he took some sticks and set them on fire at the bottom of the tree. As the fire spread it became hot and Gokul’s father could not sit inside and jumped out of the tree.

Everyone knew the truth and the judges punished Gokul for cheating his friend. Finally, Nanda got all his money from Gokul.

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7. “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” Proverb origin and meaning.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure Meaning; This proverb stresses the fact that it is easier to prevent a problem than to spend time/money/energy to find a solution for it after it has cropped up.

The effort to prevent a problem may seem very small in a measure like an ounce. But the benefit accruing from it is huge. As huge, as a pound, that is spent in solving a problem after it has cropped up.

Here it does not necessarily mean that the benefits are measured in terms of money. It is only mentioned in the content of quantifying the benefits.

We have to predict what will happen so that we can be prepared to face what is predicted. This way we can minimize the predicted losses or avoid those losses.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, the origin story

Arun knew that his car was due for some repairs since he was very happy with its performance of late. He discovered certain grinding noises and knew they were indications of some major trouble. But Arun kept postponing the trip to the service station citing a lack of time.

Mohan, the mechanic, actually worried for Arun because he knew it was only a minor job if looked into it immediately. Mohan also warned Arun that it could land him in trouble if left unattended.

In spite of all these warnings, Arun did nothing to rectify those minor repairs and went on with his work.

And that is exactly what happened one evening when Arun was coming back home after picking up his children from school.

He was driving his car with his children inside the car playing among themselves. Arun also enjoyed the joyful tendency of his children. As he was driving along the road, an event happened suddenly.

There was a snapping sound and the brakes of the car failed suddenly. The car came to a stop after crashing against a tree. The car was damaged extensively.

The children were hurt and had to be taken to the doctor. Arun realized that a major calamity had been averted and that it was his good luck that something worse had not happened.

If Arun had attended to the problem in the car he could have avoided the alarming situation he faced now. It would have also saved him the tension and trouble caused by the loss of money, property (damage to the car), and health.

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8. “As you sow so shall you reap?” Proverb origin and meaning.

As you sow so shall you reap meaning: The quality of the seeds that you sow determines the quality of the crops that you harvest. If the seeds are of superior quality then the yield will also be the same.

Similarly, the benefits that one enjoys in life are directly proportionate to the efforts that one puts in.

If a person is lazy about doing any job then he or she cannot expect any benefit out of that. Here it can also refer to the fact that in order to have mature and responsible adults one must always instill good habits and sensible moral values in children.

As you sow so shall you reap, the origin story

Once upon a time, there were two kings who ruled over neighboring kingdoms. King Aryan was a great warrior who looked after his subjects very well.

All his people loved him because he was always looking into their safety and welfare and made sure that all his subjects led a very happy and healthy life.

King Vaishali on the other hand was a very lazy man who loved to spend his time in entertaining and dancing and paid scant attention to the needs or developmental activities of the people.

His people were very angry because he hardly ever came out of the palace to look into their needs or listen to their woes.

One day a powerful Sultan decided to capture these two kingdoms and made his way to them with his strong army. King Aryan’s army was alert and was ready to face the oncoming onslaught in all preparedness.

Although they knew that the enemy was more powerful, their love for their King was so much that even women and children were ready to come to the war front and fight to protect their King.

It was a different story in the kingdom of King Vaishali. When they heard of the impending war, all the people started fleeing to the neighboring kingdoms leaving the King all by himself.

They were not interested to protect their King who did nothing for their welfare. King Vaishali only then realized his foolishness but it was too late by then. He was defeated in the war and fled for his life.

King Aryan on the other hand defeated the Sultan with the help of his motivated army and paved the way for his people to live in peace. King Aryan had the welfare of his people at heart at all times.

His subjects returned his love by being loyal and supportive to him during testing times.

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9. “Better be alone than in bad company” Proverb origin and meaning.

Better be alone than in bad company Meaning: It is better to be called a loner than to be labeled as a bad person.

It is better off to be without any friends than to have friends with a bad character. You are known by the company you keep. So we must be careful while choosing our friends.

Once there lived a group of monkeys in a small forest next to a mangrove. There were a lot of youngsters among the group who played around and spent their time happily.

Better be alone than in a bad company origin story

One day a new monkey family came to live with the group. The new family had two little monkeys – Tittoo and Bittoo – that were very mischievous and naughty beyond imagination.

Soon Tittoo and Bittoo began to make friends with the other little monkeys and tempting them to join in their pranks.

“You are living such a boring life. You must be adventurous like us. You are missing out on so much fun,” they would tell the other youngsters.

The other monkeys too were fascinated by Tittoo and Bittoo’s activities and soon joined in. They played havoc in the neighboring mangrove by eating all the mangoes and stealing things from anyone who passed by.

They ransacked the houses in the neighboring village and took great pleasure in scaring young children and snatching away their toys.

Monty and Bunty were two close friends who refused to join the gang in their naughty acts for they thought that it was not nice to steal things from innocent passers-by.

The other monkeys made fun of them by calling them cowards but Monty and Bunty did not bother about that. They played by themselves in the forest while all the others were together as a gang.

Fed up with the notorious activities of the monkeys, the owner of the mangrove sought the help of the local police. Monty and Bunty warned Tittoo and Bittoo to keep away from mischief since they had seen a few policemen with guns patrolling the mangrove. But the naughty monkeys refused to listen and continued with their menacing activities.

The next day the police had come armed with tranquilizers and set up traps to capture the monkeys. By dusk, most of the monkeys including Tittoo and Bittoo were caught and taken away to the zoo by the police.

The others who managed to escape came back into the forest totally scared and never again ventured into the mangrove, realizing that they had indeed behaved very badly.

Monty and Bonty felt that it was better to be alone than in bad company. Hence they faced no problems. But the other monkeys who played the mischief with Tittoo and Bittoo felt very sad for their friends had been taken away by the police. They realized how important it was to stay away from bad company.

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10. “Do not count your chickens before they are hatched” Proverb origin and meaning.

Do not count your chickens before they are hatched Meaning: If we have a basketful of eggs, there is no guarantee that all the eggs will hatch into chickens.

Similarly, planning is important in life. But we should not pin all our hopes and plan too much for the future, expecting certain things to happen.

Because in life, events or incidents do not always happen the way we want them to. It is necessary to plan but we must also be prepared to expect unexpected contingencies. In this proverb, our plans are compared to chickens that come out of eggs. It is better to plan things but one must also be prepared for uncertain eventualities to avoid disappointments and frustration.

Do not count your chickens before they are hatched Origin story.

Once there was a farmer Subramanian who had cultivated groundnuts on his farmland and got a good yield. He sold the groundnuts and made a huge sum of money. He wanted to perform the wedding of his daughter in a grand manner but realized that he was running short by a small amount.

Subramanian decided that he would cultivate groundnuts again the next season so that he would get a huge sum of money all over again.

Other farmers warned him not to do so since it was time for the monsoons and the meteorological department had predicted heavy rains that year.

They told him that paddy would be the best crop for cultivation and if he wanted he could cultivate groundnuts over a small area.

But Subramanian refused to listen to them and went ahead and cultivated groundnuts over his entire farmland. He was sure that he would get a good yield. He spent all the extra money that he had to conduct his daughter’s wedding.

Just as the crops were getting ready for harvesting, heavy rains lashed the village and all the crops got washed away due to heavy floods. The rain resulted in making heavy losses to all the farmers who had cultivated groundnuts on their lands.

Subramanian was a very sad man for he not only lost his crops but he also wasted all his money on lavish expenditure which was unnecessary.

He realized his folly in being overconfident and not listening to his friends’ advice which resulted in him losing all his money.

Thereafter it took many years for Subramanian to settle all his loan amount which he borrowed to marry off his daughter.