One day I was playing — I must have been five or six years old… A man used to come to see my father, an utterly boring man. And my father was growing tired of him. So he called me and told me, “I see that man is coming; he will waste my time unnecessarily and it is very difficult to get rid of him. I always have to go out, and say to him, Now I have some appointment’ — unnecessarily I have to go out, just to get rid of him. And sometimes it happens that he says,I am coming with you. So on the way we can have a good talk.’ And there is no talk, it is a monologue. He talks, and tortures people.”
So my father said, “I am going inside. You just remain playing outside. And when he comes, you simply say to him that your father is out.”
And my father used to teach me continuously, “Never speak an untruth.” So I was shocked. This was contradictory.
So when the man came and asked me, “Where is your father?” I said, “He is in, but he says that he is out.”
My father heard this from inside, and the man entered with me, so he could not say anything in front of him. When the man had gone, after two or three hours my father was really angry with me, not with the man.
He said, “I told you to tell him, `My father is out.’”
I said, “Exactly, I repeated the same thing. I told him the same thing: `My father says to tell you that he is out. But he is in, the truth is he is in.’ You have been teaching me to be true whatever the consequence. So I am ready for the consequence. Any punishment, if you want to give me, give. But remember, if truth is punished, truth is destroyed. Truth has to be rewarded. Give me some reward, so I can go on speaking the truth whatever happens.”
He looked at me and he said, “You are clever.”