A LAkh OF RUPEES FOR A BIT OF ADVICE | Lakh take ki Salah | hindi mythology

A LAC OF RUPEES FOR A BIT OF ADVICE

A poor blind Brahman and his wife were dependent on their son for
their subsistence. Every day the young fellow used to go out and get
what he could by begging. This continued for some time, till at last he
became quite tired of such a wretched life, and determined to go and
try his luck in another country. He informed his wife of his intention,
and ordered her to manage somehow or other for the old people during
the few months that he would be absent. He begged her to be
industrious, lest his parents should be angry and curse him.

One morning he started with some food in a bundle, and walked on day
after day, till he reached the chief city of the neighbouring country.
Here he went and sat down by a merchant's shop and asked alms. The
merchant inquired whence he had come, why he had come, and what was his
caste; to which he replied that he was a Brahman, and was wandering
hither and thither begging a livelihood for himself and wife and
parents. Moved with pity for the man, the merchant advised him to visit
the kind and generous king of that country, and offered to accompany
him to the court. Now at that time it happened that the king was
seeking for a Brahman to look after a golden temple which he had just
had built. His Majesty was very glad, therefore, when he saw the
Brahman and heard that he was good and honest. He at once deputed him
to the charge of this temple, and ordered fifty kharwars of rice and
one hundred rupees to be paid to him every year as wages.

Two months after this, the Brahman's wife, not having heard any news of
her husband, left the house and went in quest of him. By a happy fate
she arrived at the very place that he had reached, where she heard that
every morning at the golden temple a golden rupee was given in the
king's name to any beggar who chose to go for it. Accordingly, on the
following morning she went to the place and met her husband.

"Why have you come here?" he asked. "Why have you left my parents? Care
you not whether they curse me and I die? Go back immediately, and await
my return."

"No, no," said the woman. "I cannot go back to starve and see your old
father and mother die. There is not a grain of rice left in the house."

"O Bhagawant!" exclaimed the Brahman. "Here, take this," he continued,
scribbling a few lines on some paper, and then handing it to her, "and
give it to the king. You will see that he will give you a lac of rupees
for it." Thus saying he dismissed her, and the woman left.

On this scrap of paper were written three pieces of advice--First, If a
person is travelling and reaches any strange place at night, let him be
careful where he puts up, and not close his eyes in sleep, lest he
close them in death. Secondly, If a man has a married sister, and
visits her in great pomp, she will receive him for the sake of what she
can obtain from him; but if he comes to her in poverty, she will frown
on him and disown him. Thirdly, If a man has to do any work, he must do
it himself, and do it with might and without fear.

On reaching her home the Brahmani told her parents of her meeting with
her husband, and what a valuable piece of paper he had given her; but
not liking to go before the king herself, she sent one of her
relations. The king read the paper, and ordering the man to be flogged,
dismissed him. The next morning the Brahmani took the paper, and while
she was going along the road to the darbar reading it, the king's son
met her, and asked what she was reading, whereupon she replied that she
held in her hands a paper containing certain bits of advice, for which
she wanted a lac of rupees. The prince asked her to show it to him, and
when he had read it gave her a parwana for the amount, and rode on. The
poor Brahmani was very thankful. That day she laid in a great store of
provisions, sufficient to last them all for a long time.

In the evening the prince related to his father the meeting with the
woman, and the purchase of the piece of paper. He thought his father
would applaud the act. But it was not so. The king was more angry than
before, and banished his son from the country.

So the prince bade adieu to his mother and relations and friends, and
rode off on his horse, whither he did not know. At nightfall he arrived
at some place, where a man met him, and invited him to lodge at his
house. The prince accepted the invitation, and was treated like a
prince. Matting was spread for him to squat on, and the best provisions
set before him.

"Ah!" thought he, as he lay down to rest, "here is a case for the first
piece of advice that the Brahmani gave me. I will not sleep to-night."

It was well that he thus resolved, for in the middle of the night the
man rose up, and taking a sword in his hand, rushed to the prince with
the intention of killing him. But he rose up and spoke.

"Do not slay me," he said. "What profit would you get from my death? If
you killed me you would be sorry afterwards, like that man who killed
his dog."

"What man? What dog?" he asked.

"I will tell you," said the prince, "if you will give me that sword."

So he gave him the sword, and the prince began his story:

"Once upon a time there lived a wealthy merchant who had a pet dog. He
was suddenly reduced to poverty, and had to part with his dog. He got a
loan of five thousand rupees from a brother merchant, leaving the dog
as a pledge, and with the money began business again. Not long after
this the other merchant's shop was broken into by thieves and
completely sacked. There was hardly ten rupees' worth left in the
place. The faithful dog, however, knew what was going on, and went and
followed the thieves, and saw where they deposited the things, and then
returned.

"In the morning there was great weeping and lamentation in the
merchant's house when it was known what had happened. The merchant
himself nearly went mad. Meanwhile the dog kept on running to the door,
and pulling at his master's shirt and paijamas, as though wishing him
to go outside. At last a friend suggested that, perhaps, the dog knew
something of the whereabouts of the things, and advised the merchant to
follow its leadings. The merchant consented, and went after the dog
right up to the very place where the thieves had hidden the goods. Here
the animal scraped and barked, and showed in various ways that the
things were underneath. So the merchant and his friends dug about the
place, and soon came upon all the stolen property. Nothing was missing.
There was everything just as the thieves had taken them.

"The merchant was very glad. On returning to his house, he at once sent
the dog back to its old master with a letter rolled under the collar,
wherein he had written about the sagacity of the beast, and begged his
friend to forget the loan and to accept another five thousand rupees as
a present. When this merchant saw his dog coming back again, he
thought, 'Alas! my friend is wanting the money. How can I pay him? I
have not had sufficient time to recover myself from my recent losses. I
will slay the dog ere he reaches the threshold, and say that another
must have slain it. Thus there will be an end of my debt.'

"No dog, no loan. Accordingly he ran out and killed the poor dog, when
the letter fell out of its collar. The merchant picked it up and read
it. How great was his grief and disappointment when he knew the facts
of the case!

"Beware," continued the prince, "lest you do that which afterwards you
would give your life not to have done."

By the time the prince had concluded this story it was nearly morning,
and he went away, after rewarding the man.

The prince then visited the country belonging to his brother-in-law. He
disguised himself as a jogi, and sitting down by a tree near the
palace, pretended to be absorbed in worship. News of the man and of his
wonderful piety reached the ears of the king. He felt interested in
him, as his wife was very ill; and he had sought for hakims to cure
her, but in vain. He thought that, perhaps, this holy man could do
something for her. So he sent to him. But the jogi refused to tread the
halls of a king, saying that his dwelling was the open air, and that if
his Majesty wished to see him he must come himself and bring his wife
to the place. Then the king took his wife and brought her to the jogi.
The holy man bade her prostrate herself before him, and when she had
remained in this position for about three hours, he told her to rise
and go, for she was cured.

In the evening there was great consternation in the palace, because the
queen had lost her pearl rosary, and nobody knew anything about it. At
length some one went to the jogi, and found it on the ground by the
place where the queen had prostrated herself. When the king heard this
he was very angry, and ordered the jogi to be executed. This stern
order, however, was not carried out, as the prince bribed the men and
escaped from the country. But he knew that the second bit of advice was
true.

Clad in his own clothes, the prince was walking along one day when he
saw a potter crying and laughing alternately with his wife and
children. "O fool," said he, "what is the matter? If you laugh, why do
you weep? If you weep, why do you laugh?"

"Do not bother me," said the potter. "What does it matter to you?"

"Pardon me," said the prince, "but I should like to know the reason."

"The reason is this, then," said the potter. "The king of this country
has a daughter whom he is obliged to marry every day, because all her
husbands die the first night of their stay with her. Nearly all the
young men of the place have thus perished, and our son will be called
on soon. We laugh at the absurdity of the thing--a potter's son
marrying a princess, and we cry at the terrible consequence of the
marriage. What can we do?"

"Truly a matter for laughing and weeping. But weep no more," said the
prince. "I will exchange places with your son, and will be married to
the princess instead of him. Only give me suitable garments, and
prepare me for the occasion."

So the potter gave him beautiful raiment and ornaments, and the prince
went to the palace. At night he was conducted to the apartment of the
princess. "Dread hour!" thought he; "am I to die like the scores of
young men before me?" He clenched his sword with firm grip, and lay
down on his bed, intending to keep awake all the night and see what
would happen. In the middle of the night he saw two Shahmars come out
from the nostrils of the princess. They stole over towards him,
intending to kill him, like the others who had been before him: but he
was ready for them. He laid hold of his sword, and when the snakes
reached his bed he struck at them and killed them. In the morning the
king came as usual to inquire, and was surprised to hear his daughter
and the prince talking gaily together. "Surely," said he, "this man
must be her husband, as he only can live with her."

"Where do you come from? Who are you?" asked the king, entering the
room.

"O king!" replied the prince, "I am the son of a king who rules over
such-and-such a country."

When he heard this the king was very glad, and bade the prince to abide
in his palace, and appointed him his successor to the throne. The
prince remained at the palace for more than a year, and then asked
permission to visit his own country, which was granted. The king gave
him elephants, horses, jewels, and abundance of money for the expenses
of the way and as presents for his father, and the prince started.

On the way he had to pass through the country belonging to his brother-
in-law, whom we have already mentioned. Report of his arrival reached
the ears of the king, who came with rope-tied hands and haltered neck
to do him homage. He most humbly begged him to stay at his palace, and
to accept what little hospitality could be provided. While the prince
was staying at the palace he saw his sister, who greeted him with
smiles and kisses. On leaving he told her how she and her husband had
treated him at his first visit, and how he had escaped; and then gave
them two elephants, two beautiful horses, fifteen soldiers, and ten
lacs rupees' worth of jewels.

Afterwards he went to his own home, and informed his mother and father
of his arrival. Alas! his parents had both become blind from weeping
about the loss of their son. "Let him come in," said the king, "and put
his hands upon our eyes, and we shall see again." So the prince
entered, and was most affectionately greeted by his old parents; and he
laid his hands on their eyes, and they saw again.

Then the prince told his father all that had happened to him, and how
he had been saved several times by attending to the advice that he had
purchased from the Brahmani. Whereupon the king expressed his sorrow
for having sent him away, and all was joy and peace again.