Once upon a time there was a rich father and a son who loved to collect rare and exotic paintings around the world. They had a huge collection of oil paintings, painting on canvas and portraits.
One day a war broke up in their country and the son joined the military to fight for his country. It was a fierce battle and many were wounded and killed. The son also lost his life in the battle field and on hearing this news the father was shattered.
One day there was a knock on the door and the father slowly opened the door and there stood a person in a military uniform. The person introduced himself to be the friend of the deceased son. He said that his son got shot in the battle field while trying to save the fiend’s life. The son, wounded and bleeding to death gave the address of his father and asked him to pay a visit when goes back to his home.
The friend said that’s why he has come to see his friend’s ailing father. While he was about to leave he gave the portrait of the son which he drew after his death. He drew the picture of the wounded and bleeding son who was about to die. The friend said that it was the last scene he saw of the son.
The father on seeing the portrait broke into tears burdened by the thought how much his son would have suffered in the battle field. He included his portrait to the collection he already had. He used to look into that portrait almost every day. When his days were coming to an end he wrote a will and one day he too died.
In his will, the father had written that all his collection of rare paintings sold in an auction. So, on a specified day an auction was called and many art lovers assembled there. All the paintings and portraits were kept in display and the auctioneer took the son’s portrait and auctioned it first. The people gathered there disliked the son’s portrait and asked for the next painting to be auctioned. But the auctioneer said that in the will the father had written that only after auctioning his son’s portrait other paintings and portraits could be auctioned.
Still there were no takers. So the auctioneer decided to quote the starting price as Rs.100.There were no takers at all. Seeing this, the gardener who worked there for several years came forward to buy his master’s portrait. He said he is willing to buy that portrait but he has only Rs.50.
So, the portrait was sold for Rs.50.
The auctioneer handed over the son’s portrait to the gardener and closed the auction. The people gathered over there wondered what was happening. Then the auctioneer said that the father in his will had mentioned that whoever buys his son’s portrait would get all his remaining collection as well his house.
