Tenali Rama, the clever jester of the king's court, learned that thieves were planning to rob his house that night. He did not panic or call the guards.
Instead, in a loud voice in his garden, he told his wife, “I've hidden all our riches in a chest and dropped it into the well, so no thief can ever find it!” The listening thieves grinned.
All night the thieves hauled buckets, emptying the well to find the chest — and so they watered Tenali's whole garden! At dawn there was no chest, only tired thieves and a beautifully watered garden.