Rice Bowl Wishes

Once in a village in China, three young boys, each eleven years old, were adopted
by an old lady, Nii Yoo, from an orphanage. She sent two of them, Lan Dua and
Swa Jow, to school and dressed them in very fine clothes. However, the third little
boy, Gow Sir, was blind, and she treated him as a servant. She dressed him in very
old ragged clothes and fed him the food left-over by the other boys. Gow Sir wasn’t
sent to school and ran errands for Nii Yoo.

One night, when a deadly fire broke out in the room where they stored rice, Lan
Dua and Swa Jow ran out of the house to escape the fire. Gow Sir risked his life,
went inside to help Lady Nii Yoo escape the fire. He carried her on his back and
both were saved.

Knowing how brave and selfless Gow Sir was, the old lady gave him a rice bowl that
could grant wishes, before her last breath. She told him that the rice bowl could
grant one wish a year, two wishes every two years, and three wishes every three
years. Also, she added, all the wishes would be revoked if the rice bowl was broken.
So she told him to wish wisely.

When Gow Sir wished for his vision to see lady Nii Yoo one last time before burying
her, the bowl granted him the same. Lan Dua and Swa Jow soon came back and
got to know about the rice bowl. The two boys wished for a house, food, and good
grades in school without studying. After three years, it was time again to make
wishes. While the two boys wished for houses and gold, Gow Sir wished for a
library loaded with books.

Every three years, Lan Dua and Swa Jow continued to wish for mansions, gold,
wives, sons, and high-rank offices in the village, without working for any of it.
Whereas, Gow Sir, wished for more books to replace his old ones and went on
reading them. He gathered a lot of knowledge over the nine years.

After nine years, on one such occasion, when the three of them came together to
make wishes from the rice bowl, both Lan Dua and Swa Jow wanted to keep the
bowl to themselves. They tried to grab the bowl and dropped it meanwhile.
Immediately, Gow Sir lost his vision, and the other two lost all their possessions.

Lan Dua and Swa Jow learned the lesson of their stupidity and became the oldest
pupils at the school. They became very dedicated to their studies. However, Gow Sir
did not lose the knowledge that he gained from the books, and he was known to be
among the wisest teachers in China. Even though the rice bowl lost its magic, Gow
Sir glued its broken pieces and kept it on his desk as an ordinary bowl.