STORY FOURTEEN
The king again placed the corpse with the spirit on his shoulder and started
to walk. The Vetaala again told him a story.
“Great King! To ease your exhaustion, let me tell you a story.
There is a city named Ayodhyaa. It was the capital city of Rama , the death god for
the demon-clan. A king named VeeraKetu of mighty shoulders lived there
protecting the earth like a fort around the city. In the city ruled by such a
king, a merchant named RatnaDatta was there. He had a wife named Nandayati. By
propitiating gods they had obtained a daughter named Ratnavati. She grew in her
father’s house increasing her charms and beauty day by day. Enamored by her
beauty, not only rich merchants but even kings begged her father to offer her
in marriage to them.
The girl proud of her beauty, hated all men and would not
want even Indra as her husband. She was
ready to give up her lives even if her marriage was even mentioned in talks.
Because of this her father silently suffered unable to do anything. This news
spread all over Ayodhyaa.
Meanwhile all the people in the city were getting robbed by
some thieves and they approached King VeeraKetu and complained like this-
“Lord! We daily get robbed by thieves. We are not able to
catch them.
The matter rests with the Lordship now.”
The king assured them of immediate action and sent them
away. He engaged soldiers to hide at night time in various places to catch the
thieves. Yet the thieves were not caught by any of them. The king then took his
sword and started to look for the thieves alone at night. Then he saw a man
walking alone by the side of the fort-wall, moving carefully without making any
noise of the footsteps, looking here and there with suspicion, turning back
repeatedly to see that nobody followed him.
The king decided that, that man must be the one single thief
who robbed the citizens and slowly approached him.
The thief saw him and questioned,
“Who are you?”
The king said- “I am a thief.”
The thief was pleased by this answer and said to him-
“By my good fortune you have become my friend. Come to my
house. I will entertain you like a friend.”
The king agreed and followed him.
They both soon reached a house inside the forest situated
underground, richly decorated with lustrous gems, shining new as if it was the
netherworld ruled by King Bali.
The thief got the king seated comfortably in the outer hall
and went inside. Immediately a maid approached the king and said-
“Good man! What made you enter this mouth-hole of death?
He is just one single thief living here. He will come out and harm you now. He
will betray your trust for sure. So get away quickly before he comes out.”
The king escaped immediately; returned to his palace;
brought his whole army and surrounded the thief’s underground house.
The thief understood that he had been caught by his own
folly. Ready to face death, he came out to fight the whole army. He showed
extreme expertise in fighting and soon cut off the trunks of the elephants,
legs of the horses, heads of the soldiers singly with the help of just a sword
and shield. With the army in shambles, the king himself faced him in the fight.
The king had specialized in sword-fight and tricked him into losing his sword
and knife. The king threw away his weapons also and defeated him in a fist
fight and caught him alive.
In the morning the thief was led in a procession toward the hanging
place to the accompaniment of drums. Ratnavati, the merchant’s daughter saw him
from the terrace of her mansion. She saw the wounded and dust covered body of
the thief and fell in love with him. She ran to her father and said-
“Father! I have accepted the thief getting led towards
the hanging place as my husband. Please get him released by requesting the
king. Otherwise I will follow him in death also.”
Her father was
surprised by her words and said-
“Daughter! What are
you saying? That fellow is a thief. He robbed the citizens of their wealth. He
will be soon punished by death. How can I get him released? Why are you acting
like this?”
Though chided like
this, Ratnavati would not change her mind. The father had too much affection
for his daughter; so he approached the king and begged him to release the thief.
He was ready to offer anything in exchange. But the thief had robbed many a
citizen and moreover the king had caught him risking his own life; and so would
not release the thief even when crores of gold coins were offered as a price.
When her father
returned failing in his mission, Ratnavati got ready to follow the thief in his
death. She disregarded the pleas of her relatives; took bath; sat in a
palanquin; and went to the punishing ground where the thief was to be killed. Her parents and relatives followed her
weeping aloud. At that moment the thief already
stuck on the sharp spear was slowly dying. He saw Ratnavati accompanied by her
relatives; heard the news about her; shed a few tears; laughed once and died.
Ratnavati the devoted wife of the thief got the corpse brought down and as it
was getting burnt in the cremation ground, entered the fire.
“Hey devoted wife of
the thief! I am pleased by your devotion to your husband whom you chose by
yourself. Ask for any boon you want.”
Ratnavati saluted
the god and asked the boon like this-
“Lord! My father does
not have any son. Let him be blessed with hundred sons so that he does not give
up his life when I am gone, as he has no other progeny.”
The God of the
cremation ground again addressed her from the sky-
“Good lady! Let your
father have hundred sons. Ask for another boon. A devoted wife like you
deserves more than a single boon.”
Ratnavati then said-
“Lord! If you are
pleased with me then let my husband live and become noble in character always.”
Lord Sharva said-
“Let it be so. May your
husband get up freed of all wounds. Let him have noble characters. Let King
VeeraKetu also feel happy.”
As the words got
uttered by the invisible Lord, the thief instantly got up from the cremation
bed alive and unhurt. Merchant RatnaDatta was surprised by all this. He felt
very happy. He took his son-in-law and his daughter home; celebrated the happy
occasion with lots of festivities grandly. The king was also pleased by the
events and appointed the thief as his army commander. That thief also left his
life of robbery and deceit; married the merchant’s daughter; was engaged in
righteous activities; and lived happily.
END
Vetaala ended the
story; threatened him with the curse and asked the king-
“King! Tell me! When
the thief was stuck on the spear, as he was dying, when he saw the merchant’s
daughter with her father, why did he cry, why did he laugh?”
The king said-
“The thief was not
able to fulfill the wishes of the merchant who had become his well-wisher for no
reason; so he cried.
‘Why this girl has
chosen me to be her life-partner leaving out the noble king?
Alas! The minds of
females indeed work strangely.’
Surprised like this,
he laughed.”
As the king spoke,
Vetaala vanished and appeared on the tree instantly. The king without losing
courage followed it to the Shimshapaa tree.
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