Back to: Kerala Board Class 6th English Guide and Notes
Table of Contents
Characters
- Merchant: A greedy, sly person.
- Judge: The one who decides the outcome of the deal made.
- Carla: A smart, loving, and hardworking daughter.
Introduction
Clever Carla by Robert Scotellaro is a short play taking place in the city of Palermo, Italy. The play is about a poor farmer and his young daughter Carla. The farmer works hard to cultivate fine grains and fresh vegetables to sell at a nearby market. Carla helped her father by watering the plants and collecting the grains.
Summary
The farmer goes to sell his grains
One day the farmer loaded his wagon with grains and hitched up his horse, asked his daughter Carla to wish him luck so that when he returns back home in the evening his pockets be filled with money. Carla wished him luck and made sure that before he came back, she would have the rest of the grains collected for him.
In the street when the farmer had settled to sell his grains a merchant comes to purchase and analyses the grains. Seeing the fine grains, the merchant asked the price for everything. The farmer fell for his tactic and said twenty copper pieces for everything and made a deal with the merchant. As soon as the deal was made the merchant makes the farmer give everything that he had then. When the farmer refused to give away his wagon and horse, the rule was such that once a deal is made one has to agree or else appear before the judge.
The merchant turns out to be cunning
The merchant and farmer went before the judge and the merchant wins and takes away all the grains along with his wagon and horse. The farmer goes back home devastated and explains it to his daughter. Carla thinks of an idea to find the merchant and teach him a lesson.
Clara teaches the merchant a lesson
The next day Carla selected a basket full of the best, ripe watermelons that the farmer had ever grown and gone to the market to sell them. She knew it would lure the wicked merchant and as expected he came by her stall and tried to make the same deal but this time Carla outsmarted him. When the merchant tried to buy everything from her, the price she charged in return was everything the merchant had in his hand. The merchant made a deal and didn’t realize it until she asked for the rings that he wore on his fingers. When the merchant reluctantly gives the rings to Carla she returned him back saying her father did not teach her to harm anybody.
Conclusion
This lesson teaches us that our greed makes us do many things which are not good or ethical. We should make just demands that can be fulfilled easily and must make our earnings in honest means. Our greed can turn us into corrupt and dishonest human beings and must restrain ourselves from becoming that. Carla returned the rings to the greedy merchant. The merchant felt ashamed of his deeds, he remembered how he behaved with Carla’s father the previous day.
