A Bowl of Rice

It was contained within the home of those each who believed something different about it. After appearing out of nowhere one day it sat on the counter taking up a blueish tint on the inside and outside with a brown rim adding a hint of decor. The dwellers of this house had naturally created a hierarchy among the four of them based on the level of wisdom that they possessed and they regarded each other in this way. Each of these had their own room and their own space in which they lived and so each of them never really had a reason to communicate with one another, they simply lived side by side without disturbance until this strange appearance welcomed itself into their household. The home in which the bowl sat held four occupants. Two males and two females. All of about the same age, but two which were of a higher maturity than the other two. These two were the ones who kept the house contained and in order. Many things were not done without them knowing about it or at least finding out promptly after it occurred. So it was quite surprising that when the blue bowl filled with grains of rice appeared, these two did not know the manner in which it came into existence. These two even went so far as to ask the two less wise occupants of the household if they knew anything about the bowl, but neither knew where it came from.

One of the Wiser of the household placed the rice in the pantry and washed out the bowl, however the very next morning it sat on the counter with the same amount of rice. This One of the Wiser went into the pantry to see if the rice that they had placed there the day before was still there and to their dismay, it was. Usually this One of the Wiser could figure things out for themselves, but this problem was baffling to them and they could see no immediate solution. This One of the Wiser assumed that the Wisest of Them could figure it out on their own, as they usually did when a problem arose within the household. So this One of the Wiser went on with their day and their week and the bowl continued to sit on the counter in their home.

The Wisest of Them puzzled over the bowl of rice left on the counter from the moment that it appeared. They noticed that it always seemed to end up back where it started, even when they placed the bowl in different spots around the house. The Wisest of Them continued to experiment with the bowl of rice, dumping out the contents, counting each grain and taking five out before placing the rest back in the bowl and counting the grains the next day to take note that even though there were five grains removed the day before, five more had been somehow added in the night. The Wisest of Them told no one else in the house that they were performing these experiments, and the others usually kept their distance from The Wisest of Them and didn’t question what they did. So it was surprising to The Wisest of Them when one evening they glanced over at the blue bowl of rice and saw that it had been disturbed. About half of the rice was gone and the smell of spices was in the air. The Wisest of them searched for the culprit of this smell and this disturbance. However, no one was to be seen except The Least Wise of Them passing through the kitchen with a stain on their shirt and a paper towel in hand. The Wisest of Them disregarded their presence and searched for another answer to explain the disappearance of the rice. However, no other solution presented itself to them. Surely The Least Wise of Them hadn’t dared to disrupt The Wisest of Them’s careful deductions and experiments? Surely they wouldn’t have done such a thing. And yet…. The Wisest of Them pondered this and all at once grew very angry. They walked over to the bowl, grabbed it, and threw it onto the concrete just outside their back door where they shattered the bowl to fragments. The Wisest of Them regarded the blue shards of broken ceramic pieces mixed in with the grains with a sigh of relief. Clearly this bowl would not dare to reform and continue to cause annoyance to them by sitting so malevolently but so seemingly calm and innocent in that idiotic shade of blue.

The Less Wise of Them didn’t have any regard for the bowl, they thought that it was strange that it was filled with white rice, after all they only ever ate brown rice because the two wisest that as the healthiest, and they always wanted to eat the most nutritious foods and stay in peak condition. To them it soon became just another decoration that they never touched or felt like they were not supposed to touch. The bowl became those glass grapes you see at your grandmother’s house but never dared to touch in reflection of a daunting memory of being scolded as a child. At first it didn’t seem to be important to the rest of the household, but they soon began to notice that the Wisest of Them had begun to gaze at the bowl. The stare appeared as quizzical at first, but then turned into something much more heinous as time went on. The Wisest of Them never seemed to notice the Less Wise of Them watching them, they were always much too interested in staring at the bowl and counting out the grains that it held. The Less Wise of Them watched the Wisest of Them as they grew more and more frustrated with the bowl filled with rice. Eventually after a few weeks, the Less Wise of Them grew tired of watching the Wisest of Them waste their time on trying to figure out the solution to the bowl of rice. The Less Wise of Them didn’t even know what made the bowl of rice so interesting to the Wisest of Them or why it became so frustrating to them. Then the bowl, as nameless as it had come, disappeared one day and was never seen again by the Less Wise of Them.

However, after about a month of the bowl of rice sitting on the counter, The Least Wise of Them went into the kitchen to make supper for themselves and saw that there was no more of the brown rice in the pantry. They looked over at the bowl and considered how long it had been sitting there collecting bacteria, then considered how long and how much more energy it would take to go to the store and buy some more. In this fashion the Least Wise of Them weighed their options and chose to use some rice from the bowl for their dinner. An aroma rose and filled the kitchen as they prepared their meal. The Least Wise of Them walked from the kitchen with their rice bowl waiting to be consumed.