The Foolish Physician
Hitopadesha Stories · 1 min read
A man with no formal medical training had, over the years, memorized a handful of remedies from an old book and set himself up as a physician in a small town, treating minor ailments well enough that his reputation slowly grew — though he had never actually cured anything serious.
When the king's own son fell dangerously ill, desperate courtiers, having heard rumors of this local healer, summoned him to the palace against the advice of the royal doctors, who protested that the man had no real training at all.
The self-taught physician, in over his head but unwilling to admit it, prepared a remedy from his book meant for a completely different, much milder illness, and administered it to the prince with great confidence.
The prince's condition worsened by the hour, and it was only the desperate intervention of the palace's real physicians, called back in at the last moment, that managed to save the boy's life — while the false healer was quietly escorted from the kingdom, his reputation, built on minor luck, finally matched to his true skill.
Moral of the story
Confidence built on a handful of small successes can be dangerously mistaken for real expertise.