Prof. Manuel D’cruz, the Founder of the Moira School, says " with my long association with these people (Moidekars) I had a startling revelation - these people were neither fools nor knaves but past masters in the art of clowning. Indeed, they would create deliberately and consciously and willingly incongruent scenes and situations so that they may have an opportunity to laugh with their friends at their own cost. Their humour therefore was democratic, spending on themselves and not sarcastic hurting others."

Many are the tales told of the wise fools of Moira. Given below is a collection of some of the most popular ones.

Once upon a time the wise villagers of Moira who were very religious felt the need for a bigger church structure so as to accommodate everybody. They called a village conference to try and find a solution to the problem. A lot of suggestions were put forward but none seemed practical enough to implement. Finally, the Sacristan from Aldona suggested a simple solution.

" When you want your plants to grow what do you do ? Add manure, don’t you ?" Why don’t you’ll do the same here? They agreed.

So, all along the church they dug huge pits and a truck-full of manure was brought and poured into them.

At the end of the day, when the sun was about to set the Sacristan shouted at them saying "Look the church has grown" and indeed it had grown so much that there was too much space in the front yard and hardly any space in the backyard.

So, again they decided to consult the Sacristan who by now was held in high esteem by the villagers. He told that they could try pushing the church from behind. They all went behind and began pushing hard, but the church did not seem to move anywhere. The smart Sacristan from Aldona, who by now was standing in front said that if they were to put blankets on the ground in front of the church, the church would move more easily. Accordingly, this was done and the villagers went back to pushing the church from behind. They pushed and pushed, and kept pushing. The Sacristan who was keeping a watch in front quickly collected all the blankets and stashed them away in his room. And quickly running outside he shouted at them

"Stop, Stop, the church has already come in front".

At the end of the day, the villagers saw that their mission had been accomplished and went home happy and contented.

One day in church, the Vicar came to celebrate the Sunday mass in the morning. Pious Moidekars had come to attend the mass. The priest after the entrance hymn was sung, said "Alleluia"

And villagers all walked out of church

The next day the same thing happened and so also the day after.

Finally, the Vicar was perplexed and asked the villagers what was the problem. Why were they all running away when he said, "Alleluia".

"Father" they said "You yourself said ‘Alem luia’ (harvest the ginger). So we went out to our fields to dig the "alem".

" Half of the harvest "

Moira has its backbone in agrarian society where working in the fields is the common occupation.

Now it so happened a long time ago that the Moidekar’s began finding the field work very costly. To add to their woes they also had a repeated spells of bad harvests. Different types of manure had been added on to the fields without effect. A solution had to be found quickly to end this problem plaguing the Moidekars. To make matters worse it was found that in the neighbouring village of Aldona, there were a repeated succession of bumper harvests in spite of them having the same type of fields with respect to type of soil, manure added etc.

A gathering of the Village ganvkars was called and it was decided to approach the Aldoncars and ask them for help in working the fields in Moira. The Aldoncars were only too happy to oblige the troubled Moidekars citing only one condition – that the Moidekars would have to split the proceeds of the harvest into two equal halves ( as in 50–50). This was agreed to by the Moidekars and they jubilantly went about planting their first crop of paddy aided by the superior technical skills of the Aldoncars.

As we already know, time waits for no one, so also, the monsoon rains gave way to hot sunny days, along with a bountiful crop of paddy waiting to be harvested. Now before they set about harvesting the crop, the Moidekars remembering the condition, asked the Aldoncars how they would like to divide the proceeds. The Aldoncars stated that they would like to cut the paddy stalks into half and take the top halves. This was readily accepted by the Moidekars. At the end of the day when the Moidekars went to check the roots, they found that they had been taken for a royal ride.

Still smarting under the trick played upon them by the Aldoncars and wanting to exact retribution, the Moidekars invited the Aldoncars in the next season where the crop to be planted was sweet potato. The crop was planted, and grew well to give nice bushy shoots, looking at which the Moidekars were a happy lot. When the time came for the harvest the Moidekars, wise from their previous experience, insisted that they would take the tops this time. The Aldoncars feigning reluctance at first, agreed, only to profit again at the behest of the wise old Moidekars.

This is the reason no Aldoncar has ever cultivated a field in Moira again!!!

This story emphasizes the characteristics of a Moidekar who considered loyalty to one’s

King as next only to God.

The Rajah of Goa, it is said, rewarded the people of Moira with a special grant of land in return for their loyalty. The Moidekars accepted the gift with joy and in return decided to offer the Rajah, hundred of the best mangoes of their produce. After great deliberation, they got confused as to whether to pick on size or sweet smell or colouring. It is well known that some mangoes of the most beautiful hues can be rather sour. The final test approved by the village elders was bot to rely on colour or smell or feel, but to take the mango, nibble at it a little and then suck it !

Thus the sweetest one hundred mangoes were sent to the Rajah.