There was a village named Villadom in Kerala. The people there were very much united. They believed in co-operative efforts and common ventures. Each one helped the other and they were very happy.

One day, it was time for making mango pickles and so the village chieftain convened a meeting of elders. The members of the panchayat unanimously decided that they should prepare pickles together instead of preparing them individually. ‘Why put mangoes in separate jars,’ they thought, ‘it is better to prepare in one jar.’ But there was a problem: where would they get such a big jar? It was not available anywhere. So an idea struck them. There were three wells in the village – two big and one small. They could utilise the small well for making pickles and each one could take his family’s share from it, at the appropriate time. So, each villager brought their mangoes with other ingredients like chilli, salt etc. and put them in the well. Thereafter, they put a fence around the well. They decided that no one should use the well for some time.

Days passed and it was time to take the pickles. All the villagers gathered around the well with jars to take their share. Each person would take the share in accordance with the number of mangoes put by them in the well. Tying a big jar around his neck, each man jumped in to take his share. Each one had to dive deep to take his share of pickled mangoes. The next man waited. The first man didn’t come up for quite some time. The second man became impatient. He thought that the first man was taking more than his share, so he couldn’t wait any longer. He also fastened a big jar around his neck, and jumped in. Neither of them came up. The other people waiting outside got suspicious. One by one, they also jumped in, and no one ever came out. Jealousy and greed for more, killed them all.

A folktale sourced from Folktales of Kerala by I.K.K. Menon.

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