তিন চোরের গল্প: লোভের পরিণতি

What does “কুবুদ্ধি” mean in Bengali?

বুদ্ধি means “mind,” “intellect” or “idea” — a genuinely useful, neutral word. Add the prefix কু-, meaning “bad” or “wicked,” and it flips into কুবুদ্ধি: a scheme, a wicked plan, bad judgement. In this parable, one of three thieves gets a কুবুদ্ধি after splitting off to buy food: poison his companions' meal so he can keep the whole stolen fortune for himself.

কু- is a productive prefix across Bengali — pair it with a familiar word for a fast vocabulary trick: কুকথা (“harsh, foul words”; কথা = “talk”), কুশিক্ষা (“a bad upbringing”; শিক্ষা = “education”), কুচিন্তা (“an evil thought”; চিন্তা = “thought”). Its mirror opposite, সু- (“good”), works the same way — সুবুদ্ধি is “good sense.” The parable punishes this particular কুবুদ্ধি with poetic irony: the other two thieves kill the poisoner as planned, then eat his poisoned food themselves, and all three end up dead.