Once there was a spiritual aspirant who had decided to take to a life of asceticism. He lived very simply on the bank of a river, taking shelter beneath the trees and eating the fruits and roots that nature provided. His morning ritual was to take a bath in the river and wash his clothing. However because he had only one suit of clothes it was a little uncomfortable to dress himself again in the damp clothing and wait for the sunshine to dry them while he was wearing them. He decided therefore to get another set of clothes to wear while the other set was drying.
Life was a lot more comfortable for the ascetic now, when he washed his clothing he would hang it on the branch of a tree and wear it the next day when it was nice a dry. However before long he noticed that as the clothes hung up to dry a mouse would come and nibble at the clothing, each day creating more and more holes. “I will get a cat to protect my clothing and keep the mouse away.,” thought the ascetic. So he got a cat, but the cat needed to be fed so he got a cow to get the milk to feed the cat. Now someone was needed to milk the cow to feed the cat so the ascetic found a wife. But his wife needed somewhere to live so he had to build a house. The unhappy ascetic approached a sage and complained to him how complicated his life had become.
“Nothing comes without a price,” said the sage. “If you had wanted to have a simple life you should have just tolerated your wet clothing.”
