Thawtar Swe - Boss Spirit World's Top Comedy Short Stories

Beautiful garden 

All the healthy and able-bodied people in the village have gone to their respective workplaces. The children in the school are busy with their studies, reciting poems, and singing songs. The children and their mothers are swinging their cradles with one hand and doing household chores with the other. At that time, on a bench next to a large wooden table set up on the veranda of a shop with a signboard reading “Pang Gou Phi” in the west of the village, an old man who deserves to be called the “Phoe Thet Sya” was talking to a tourist who was also a beer drinker while drinking a glass of beer.

This is a spring afternoon in the small village of "Little Bury" in the south of England. The village is covered with large and small trees, and the shade is beautiful. The fragrant scent of the seasonal flowers that bloom in clusters on the trees fills the whole village. The stranger said this while breathing in great pleasure.

"My father's village is beautiful and peaceful."

The village elder rubbed the beer foam on his lips with the palm of his hand and said...

"Oh... what is this? Back when we were young, the whole village used to have flower competitions and everything. People in those days were so united and close-knit. Oh... the worst part is..."

He cut off the words he had just spoken, and while lighting his large earthenware lamp, he looked at his native land with a very fond look. As if remembering ancient events, his entire face brightened, and he continued to speak, shaking his head from side to side.

"Now the whole village is gone. I am the only old man left. But... I will not talk about it. Nowadays, there are more liars than in our time, but they are all liars. They are not wise. In the past, there were very wise and deceitful elders in our village. If you want to listen, I will tell you."

As I finished my glass of beer, the traveler kindly ordered another one...

"Tell me, brother, I'm ready for the trip."

"Let's start with Tom Adam, who started the welfare scheme in our village. A man pays threepence a week. The fund helps people who are sick and injured and can't work. Tom was the chairman of the club, and he couldn't work for a month after the club was set up. He would lie in bed. He would go back to work. Well... a week later he got a cold in his leg. When it went away, he had a terrible stomach ache and couldn't work. We didn't understand why he was sick and sick. We didn't understand the numbers. We were farmers. And so, after six months, when the club was settled, there wasn't a penny left in the club, and we, the members, owed Tom Adam one pound, seventeen shillings and sixpence."

"Another one is Herbert Richardson. This man went to town once and when he came back he formed a club called the Goose Fund Club to cook goose for the whole village at Christmas. We each put in a penny a week. We kept up this regular saving for about ten months, and when Christmas was coming, Herbert went to town to buy Christmas things and never showed up. We went to ask his sister who lived with him and she said, 'My brother is in town and has a big business, and he will give us back whatever money we can get, so don't worry about it.'"

“Well... let’s leave these as minor things. The most learned and wise man in our village is “Bob Pritty”. His trickery is not light. It is very deep. That’s why even the people who are deceived, even after being deceived, still praise his wisdom behind their backs. I have not yet found anyone who can compete with him. The garden beauty contest in our village has also been ruined by the devil. Flower beauty contests are a very enjoyable activity. The village is beautiful because they plant more beautiful and exotic flowers than me, so the village is beautiful. It is also beautiful to the eye. It is also joyful and cool. It is also a joy in the hearts of the people. Such a good contest can only last a year because of a selfish person like Bob Pritty. I am the only one in this village who can tell you about this. You should say that you are lucky.”

“It’s like this. The first year of the garden competition, it was a huge success. The tradition was started by a new pastor and his wife who came to our village. Their goal was to encourage the villagers to spend their free time decorating their gardens and taking better care of their homes, instead of wasting their time at the cauliflower shop. The first prize winner of the competition was given three gold coins and a metal teapot with the words “First Prize” written on it.”

“In that competition, ‘Bill Chambers’ won first prize. I’m not saying that. In those years, the fragrance of flowers in our village would spread far beyond the village. The whole village was beautiful with all kinds of flowers, all kinds of colors… People from the surrounding villages, even some people from the city, would come to see it. The cauliflower liquor store was so small that it couldn’t even sell liquor. How could ‘Bill Chambers’, who won first prize, not have enough money to pay for his flower garden?”

“The fact is, the race is set for July 5th. It’s springtime, so the work is done. The weather is perfect, so it’s the best time to plant flowers. By mid-June, Bill Chambers’s team is leading the field. But Peter Smith, Joe Garbins, Sam Jones, and Henry Pogba are as good as Bill Chambers’s. Even so, I hear they don’t have a public meeting before the race.

There are even some rare flowers that Aung has hidden away. I will show them off at the last minute, so that everyone will be amazed. We also have a cup of "Pan Kao Phi" every evening, and we are tired of betting on our favorite garden. I bet on Henry Ward. I am helping him with his garden, so I know his secret card, so I am sure he will win."

"Then I feel ashamed every time I think about it, I feel ashamed of my own hard work. There are people who sit and watch while I plant flowers in front of them, doing nothing, and burying them. Among those people, "Bob Pritty" is the worst. This man is not a man who does any work to strengthen his muscles. I wonder if he is lazy and has a lot of skin. If you look at his yard, you will see broken pots, broken cups, broken baskets, broken balls, and leftover food bones.

"You are so charming and charming. Dean looked around the park and said, "You guys are just being forced to do things for free... You're always trying to make people not want to do it, and you're always trying to make them laugh."

"Well... there's one thing, this guy must be broke and not working. When it's time to eat, the smell of cooking in his kitchen is always delicious. He definitely knows how to eat well better than we do."

“Well, as I said, everything was going well until the 15th of June, but on the 16th, trouble began. The way the trouble came was very strange. There was a man in our village called ‘George Inglis’. He was a cold, gentle man. He had been a sailor when he was young and had sailed around the world. On the 16th of June, George received a letter from a sailor friend of his in Austria. He usually received letters from Austria, so it was not unusual. And we didn’t know about it because he told us. The postmistress at the post office, “Mrs. Wits,” told us. But for this letter, George was very

He seemed to be in a state of mental exhaustion. He was leaning on his chest-high front porch, reading the letter over and over again, when Bill Chambers passed by his house. Bill passed by George's house every evening after work. Today, Bill passed by George's house and saw George reading a piece of paper with a frown on his face. When he greeted him, Chambers greeted him with a stern look on his face. So Bill looked at his face and...

"What's the news? It's not bad news."

"No, not really... but I got a special letter from Austria."

“Bill Chambers is a very curious man in this place, and when he doesn’t know much, he asks questions, and soon George is so insistent that he swears not to tell anyone. The content of the letter is not like a letter, but like reading a novel. The friend who wrote the letter to George, John Beak, whispered to him when one of his uncles was dying.”

“About 30 years ago, he was traveling and stayed at the “Cauliflower” Inn in our village. At night, for some reason that I cannot explain, he got up from his bed in the middle of the night and buried a bag of five hundred and fifteen gold coins in a garden in a house. He would come back for them when the weather was better. When Bill asked where he got the money, George replied that it was not honest money and that he had to hide it. In any case, Jobs’s friend John Beck wanted the money. He himself could not come to England, so he asked George to find out how much he would pay him, and that he would find out for him. That is the meaning of the letter.”

"I don't know how to do this, Bill. His letter says, 'I think it's about ten houses down the road from the cauliflower shop.' The money is a bit shabby. I thought I'd announce a reward of ten shillings to anyone who can find it."

Bill shook his head vigorously...

"I wouldn't do this, I'll just go and find out for myself without anyone telling me. It's not good if this kind of news gets out."

"Oh, you're right. If anyone knows, John Beach will never forgive me for this. He'll think I'm stupid. I can't stand to lose my dignity like that. Don't tell anyone, Bill."

Bill swore repeatedly that he wouldn't tell and returned to his house. When he got there, Bill thought about what George had said and became restless. He went to the cauliflower, had a cup of it, came home, and was busy with his work. What did he do?

The house that George said was ten houses from the cauliflower was theirs. That night, at about one o'clock in the morning, Bill's wife got up to go to bed and didn't find Bill by her side. But without thinking anything out of the ordinary, she went down to the garden and looked at her flowers that were to be entered in the competition. She forgot about it and went back to sleep. At five in the morning, she woke up again. At this time, Bill heard a noise in the front yard and opened the front window. What she saw was Bill, a madman.

The man was digging in the garden with a hoe, and about a quarter of the garden had been destroyed. So Bill's wife pushed open the doors and asked in a low voice, "What are you doing?" So Bill stretched out his back, wiped the sweat from his face with his shirt sleeve, and continued digging without saying anything. Bill's wife, who was neither laughing nor crying, came downstairs and...

"What's this doing? Are you crazy, Bill? Look at me."