Once upon a time, over a game of cards with his minister, a king promised to marry his son to the minister’s daughter. In other words, if the king had a son and the minister had a daughter, the two would get married. A few years later, the king indeed had a son and the minister a daughter. The king’s son was two years older than the minister’s daughter.
Years passed. The king’s son was now twelve, while the minister’s daughter was ten years old. True to his word, the king got his son married to the minister’s daughter. Considering her young age, the minister’s daughter stayed back at her father’s place.
The king’s son grew into a wicked man who gambled and drank all day. Disappointed in him, both the king and queen died. Even after their death, he didn’t mend his ways. In fact, he left the palace and wandered from one house to another dressed as a fakir. He lived on alms and slept wherever he could find a place to spend the night.
Even after the minister’s daughter grew up into a woman, the king’s son never came to take her to the palace. After her parents’ demise, she gave half her inheritance away to the poor and lived on the remaining money. She spent her days reading holy books and praying to the Almighty.
On the other hand, wandering as a fakir, the king’s son thought about his wife one day. When he got to the minister’s house, she ordered her servants to help him take his bath, put on nice clothes, and eat good food.
When the prince declared his intention to stay with her, she requested him to walk through the woods for a week. She also told him that he would get to a plain after the jungle, where he was to see four sights.
The prince walked for a week and reached the plain beyond the woods. He spotted a large tank there. In one corner, he could make out a couple wearing nice clothes and eating good food. The couple had a lot of servants at their service. In the second corner, he saw a couple who was sobbing incessantly because they didn’t have any food, water, or servants. In the third corner were two little fish jumping up and down. Despite coming close to the water, they couldn’t swim in it. They kept jumping up and down. In the fourth corner, he could see a huge demon heating sand in a big iron pot.
The prince went back to the minister’s daughter and told her what he had seen. The minister’s daughter explained those events to him. The happy couple in the first corner of the tank were her parents. She told him that she took good care of them while they were alive. She even gave away half the money they left her to the poor and lived peacefully with the remaining share. Pleased with her, God had blessed her parents in heaven.
The prince then inquired about the couple in the second corner. She told him that they were his parents. His gambling and drinking habits had caused them to die of grief. God wasn’t happy with them.
The prince then asked about the two little fish that were jumping up and down. She told him that they must have been the children they would have had if he took her to the palace. They weren’t born and kept going up and down. She added that the demon in the fourth corner was heating the sand for the prince, for he would grow into a wicked man.
The minister’s daughter died as soon as she finished explaining those sights to the prince. For his part, the prince never mended his ways. He gambled, drank, and wandered like a fakir till death put him out of his misery.
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 The Project Gutenberg.