A rich man went to see St. Kabir. He sat near him in his hut and said with folded hands, ‘I have made a lot of property and money with my hard work but my only son is wasting my wealth extravagantly. If he squanders my treasure at the same pace what will he do in future? I am always concerned to think about his potential.’
The saint asked him if his father also collected that much means for him. The rich man said, ‘No! My father was a poor man and I hardly got meal twice a day in my childhood.’
Kabir replied, ‘Your father was poor, even then you have been rich and collected that much capital with your wisdom and hard work. You concentrated your energy to earn worldly goods. My dear brother, prosperity is not a stable thing. If you had spent some time to make your son a cultured and kind person you would not have needed to worry from your son’s side. You learnt the art of earning prosperity but forgot to learn how to cultivate a child. If you had taught him what was good and bad he would have not been spellbound in awful society. This is the prime contractual obligation of a father to make his son capable to sit in the first row in the society. Rest of the things he can accomplish with his ability.’
The rich had been enlightened with the words of Kabir and decided to make his son a good man.