From: bkannan@ha06.eng.ua.edu (Balaji Kannan)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.tamil
Subject: Re: ADDENDUM : A puzzle
Date: 22 Aug 1992 18:19:43 -0500
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu


 "Serious" netters hit "n" now.


In article <Aug.19.15.44.48.1992.2599@endeavour.rutgers.edu> surendra@endeavour.
rutgers.edu (Arun Surendran) writes:
>
>       A righteous man who believes in 'truth' and 'non-violence' was
>       walking down a road which, at some point, split into a fork.
>       Just as he was approaching the fork, a cow ran past him into
>       one of the road formed by the fork and quickly disappeared
>       around the curve. A minute later a man with a big butcher's knife
>       (apparently the butcher) came running .. He stopped this man (our
>       hero) and asked him 'Which road did the cow take?'.
>
>       Here is the dilemma : If the man points to the right path, he
>       would be a party to killing an animal, hence would have gone
>       against 'non violence'. But if he does not give the right path,
>       he would by lying (violating truth). What would he do?
>
>       What would YOU do?
>
>       AC Suren


          Here are some replies: [If I were a righteous man who speaks the
                                  truth and believes in non-violence.....]

          Qn:         "Which road did the cow take"?

          Replies:

             1) Which cow?

             2) What road? You mean, you call these roads? :-) :-)
                Proceed from there on how roads should actually look
                and why they shouldn't be forked...................
                By the time I finish, the cow would have moved to
                another forked road, which will be another righteous
                man's problem. So, go ahead and tell him now which road
                the cow took :-)

             3) Why don't you give me that "butcher's knife" for a present
                for an "answer" to that quetsion. My wife/lover is desperately
                looking for one after the fight I had with her last night? :-)

             4) Don't you have anything better to do other than running
                after cows with a butcher's knife in hand. You remind
                me of a son I used to have.............who was gored to
                death. He had to choose between these very same roads.
                [*sob*, *sob*].umauAAn... Anyway, what was your question? 

             5) Give him that "Zen" stare. Give that puzzled look rather.
                *You are* after all.


        The problem with all "these" is

         "For the sake of a cow, a righteous man was lost"  will be
          the next day's heading in newspapers.

                             (or)

         "Non-violence in the end doesn't pay after all"

                             (or)

         "Truth, non-violence, cows, butcher' knives and righteous men
          don't always  go together"

            Of course my thought process would work this way *only*
            in the presence of a cow, forked roads, knives, and my
            "alleged" righteousness. Meaning, don't read too much
            into these hypothetical "responses".

            :-) :-) :-)


        righteousnessudan,
        bk