A white elephant

Day 330 / 365

Have you heard the saying “giving someone a white elephant”? I came across it recently and it seemed a little strange. A ‘white elephant’ here represents a gift that is big and extravagant but utterly useless. Also, it’s supposed to be hard to maintain. So giving someone a white elephant implies worsening the life of the recipient.

The origin of this phrase is believed to be from ancient Thailand. White elephants are considered sacred there, and any white elephant that’s discovered is gifted to the king. The status of a king is judged by the number of white elephants that he had.

So why was giving someone a white elephant a bad thing? White elephants require a lot of care. It is believed that if the king was unhappy with a nobleman, he would punish him by giving him a white elephant to take care of. Since it was sacred, the nobleman could not get rid of it or make it do any work. He would have to take care of it himself and would generally be driven to bankruptcy.

This post is part of my 365 Day Project for 2019. Read about it here

Yesterday’s blog — Expanding your Goals