Fictitious !

I used to travel in India for twenty years continuously. And I enjoy all kinds of things.

One day, I got on the train in Bombay and many people had come to see me off.

As I entered my air-conditioned coupe, there was another man inside also. He was watching all the people outside from the window.
He certainly thought that I was a very important person – so many rich people touching my feet.

And as I entered inside the coupe he fell flat on the floor and touched my feet.
I said, ”What are you doing? I am a Mohammedan.” And he was a high-cast brahmin.

He said, ”My God! No, it cannot be true, you must be joking.”
I said, ”I never joke.”
He became very much fidgety.

I sat there. After two minutes he again said, ”No, you are just joking.”
I said, ”I am not joking, I am a Mohammedan.”
He said, ”My God, in this cold night I will have to take a bath.”
I said, ”You go and take a bath.”

So he went and took a cold bath and came back shivering, and I started laughing. He said, ”Why are you laughing?”

I said, ”I was just joking.” And he fell again to my feet.
He said, ”I knew from the very beginning.”
I said, ”No, not that time. This time I am joking. I am a Mohammedan.”
He said, ”You will drive me crazy!

Now I have to take another shower.”
I said, ”It is up to you, I don’t say anything. You are doing all these things on your own.”
He said, ”That’s true.” He took another bath and came in.

I closed my eyes and did not say anything to him. But he could not sit restfully.

He again asked, ”Tell me the truth. Were you joking?”
I said, ”If I tell you the truth, you will have to take another bath. So it is better I keep my eyes closed.”

But he could not... because it is such a sin for a high-cast brahmin in India to touch the feet of a Mohammedan.

He said, ”But if you are a
Mohammedan, then why did all those people – none of them was a Mohammedan – come to see you off?”
I said, ”I am a Mohammedan mystic.
I tell people which horses are going to win in the race.”
He simply jumped up again and touched my feet.

He said, ”Forget about
Mohammedanism or Brahmanism, just give me a number. I am in a financial difficulty.”

I said, ”You don’t understand at all. You again will have to go to the shower. It is not easy for me to give the number of the horse that is going to come first in the coming race, and I cannot give it to somebody who distrusts me.”

He said, ”No, I will trust you. If you say, I will not take a shower again.”
I said, ”Promise?”
He said, ”I promise.”

I gave him a certain number – just any number. He said, ”But what is the guarantee?”
I said, ”When the race happens, then you will know the guarantee.

Right now, it is just a fictitious
number. That is my business – I cheat people.”
He said, ”What? So this horse is not going to win?”

I said, ”In my whole life, I have not been in any contact with horses. I don’t understand their language,
they don’t understand my language.

But if people want to be exploited, I go on giving numbers. And before the horse race I move to another place.”

He said, ”My God, so this is useless?” He threw it out of the window. ”I will have to take another bath.”I said, ”You promised.

As a high-cast brahmin, breaking a promise is a sin.”
He said, ”You will kill me! And we have to travel for twenty-four hours together.”

People have been cheated by the priests, by the politicians, by the pedagogues for centuries.

They were giving them fictitious numbers; those horse races don’t happen.

OshO 
CHAPTER 29. NOBODY IS MISSING ANYTHING
Hari Om Tat Sat