I have written this story in my blog on Kathopnishad. But it is worth repeating it.This is old story and repeated by Swamy Sarvapriyanand . There were 10 friends who were travelling and had to swim across a small river . As they reached the other side of the river, one of them wanted to be sure that all have come across and no one drowned. So he decided to count. He counted everyone but forgot to count himself. He counted 9 and so he was worried that one of them was missing and must have drowned . So the other friend said ,you must have made a mistake and so he decided to count and he did the same and did not count himself. So now everyone was convinced that one of the friends surely dies from drowning and they all started crying. There was a passer by and he was watching . He came to them and asked as to why they were crying. they told him that we were 10 friends when we decided to swim across the river and now we are only 9 and that means one has drowned. The passer by told them to count again. When the person recounts all and came to 9 the passer by turned his finger inwards towards the one who was counting and said 10.Now they all were happy that on one had drowned.
This may sound like very simple story and the mistake that was done in counting may not be common . But the real lesson of the story is that when there is ignorance we are sad and when the ignorance is removed, we are happy.
