Translated by Literary Jewels
Once upon a time a king went for a hunting trip. Earlier there were rules that in front of whosoever the prey appeared only that person will chase the animal and nobody else. Coincidentally the prey appeared in front of the King’s horse and thus, the King chased the animal on his horse. The chase went on for a long distance but he could not get hold of his prey. The King had already entered the forest in pursuit of his prey. The King was thirsty as well as hungry by now. He looked around but couldn’t find anything. Then he climbed up a tree to have a good look. It was then that he spotted smoke emanating out of a hut. He went there and asked for tea. The hut occupant said that he would get tea. Then the King asked for eggs and that too were promised by the hut owner. Then the King had his stomach’s fill with eggs and tea. When King asked about the charges for the things he had, the hut owner demanded two thousand rupees. The King was at first taken aback at the huge amount asked for by the hut owner and wondered aloud if the people didn’t get tea and eggs easily here. But the other person said that they were easily available. The King then wanted to know why they were so costly then, to which the person replied that it happens rarely that a King visited that place that is why the things are so costly. The King was happy that it was because he was a king that the person had charged exorbitant prices from him. So he readily gave him the money and went away.
The hut owner then handed over that amount of two thousand to his wife. She queried from where he had got such a large amount of money. He told her, ‘I got it by committing a sort of small fraud with a King’. ‘You can commit a fraud too!’ she exclaimed. Her husband said, ‘That was nothing. I can indulge in even bigger frauds’.
Then he took a ragged, slippery cloth and got a dress stitched out of it, which he took to another king. The King asked for that dress from the person. He told him that the dress was meant to be given to some other king. The King then asked to get a new dress stitched for him. The man replied, ‘Yes definitely! Tell me what all do you want get stitched’. The King told him, ‘One coat, one kurta, a pajama and a turban’. The man demanded an amount of five thousand from the King to which the King agreed readily but posed a question, ‘What’s so special about this drees?’ The man tried to satisfy him with a prompt answer, ‘The clothes won’t be visible to crooked persons.’ Taking the money from the King he then went away.
After about a month the King sent his ministers to check upon the progress of the dress being stitched. On seeing the ministers the man seated himself near the spinning wheel and began to pretend to weave the cloth. The ministers were unable to see the cloth. How could they when there was nothing actually! They thought about themselves, ‘Are we crooked then? And because of that we cannot see the cloth.’ When they went back they informed the King that the cloth would be ready in about ten more days.
That man, the hut owner, presented himself in the King’s court and kept his hand on the shoulder as if he had hung the cloth over there. In the whole court nobody could see the cloth but embarrassed by the situation everyone present there praised the cloth. He disrobed the King and pretended to make him wear the new invisible clothes. He suggested to the King that he should take out a procession, sitting on an elephant. The King was naked when he sat atop an elephant. Too embarrassed the King himself too didn’t say anything about his nakedness. Had he said a word, he would have been proved to be a crooked in everyone’s eyes.
A farmer, who was carrying his child on his shoulders, passed by when the procession was being taken out. His son called out that the King was naked to which the farmer warned him, ‘Keep quiet you naughty boy! Why are you bent upon earning disgrace for me?’
Sant Balvir Singh ‘Viyogi’
(Delhi wale)
Village Bhagta (Bathinda)
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