A long time ago, in a village in Kerala, lived two neighbors – Ramu and Govind. While Govind lived in prosperity, Ramu led a life of abject poverty. Ramu’s children looked starved, whereas Govind’s children looked plump. Sometimes, Ramu would seek financial help from Govind, but the latter never entertained such requests. In fact, the stony-hearted Govind never helped anyone.
As an ardent devotee of Lord Shiva, Ramu prayed to the Lord every day. However, he couldn’t earn enough to support his family. Not even able to arrange two square meals a day for his family, Ramu decided to end his life.
Ramu jumped into the river. As he sank into the deep river, he could no longer tolerate the suffocation, coming back up for some fresh air. To his surprise, Lord Shiva had appeared before him. Ramu came out of the water and bowed to the Lord. Lord Shiva blessed him with three coconuts.
‘Whenever you break these coconuts with a wish, it would come true,’ Lord Shiva said.
He broke the first coconut wishing for a splendid house. Instead of his humble hut, he got a marvelous house with all the facilities. Next, he broke the second coconut and wished for a fertile paddy field. When he broke the third coconut, he wished for a lot of money. Lord Shiva indeed blessed him with plenty of money.
Envious of Ramu’s overnight prosperity, Govind asked him how he managed to get so much wealth in such a short time span. When Ramu told him the secret of his wealth, Govind went to the river to try his luck. He jumped into the river to end his life. As expected, Lord Shiva appeared before him and gave him three coconuts.
Govind returned home with the belief that he would become a multi-millionaire after breaking the three coconuts. His friends even assembled at his place to see this happen.
Just when he was about to break a coconut, a poor beggar came to his front yard asking for some food to eat. While breaking the coconut, Govind uttered, ‘Look, this is your head.’ To his horror, he actually had the beggar’s head on his shoulders. In fact, a small head that looked exactly like the beggar appeared at all his fingertips.
Frustrated, Govind immediately broke the second coconut, wishing all heads would disappear. His wish came true, for all heads disappeared, including Govind’s. Standing as a headless trunk, he broke the third coconut with a wish to have his head back. Govind got his head back.
The poor beggar walked away. Govind never learned that it was Lord Shiva Himself who had come to save his head.
Kalai is passionate about reading and reinterpreting folk tales from all over the country. Write to her at kalai.muse@gmail.com to know more about her.
Folk tale adopted and abridged from Internet Archive.