The Three Gifts

Hello, everyone,

    The story that I am going to tell you today is a folktale of India.

    It is the story of a dishonest sister who tries to cheat her brother out of his gifts. Although, she succeeds at first but her brother outsmarts her.

    Read on find out how he does it.

    Happy reading.

 THE THREE GIFTS

    Once upon a time, there was an old woman and she had two children. The elder one was a girl and she was married and lived in the next village. The other was a boy. He worked very hard but earned very little. So one day he decided to try his luck where his sister lived. He told his mother about his plan. So, the next day he woke up very early and started on his journey so that by nightfall he would reach there. His mother had made seven chapattis for him which he had wrapped in a cloth and took them with him to eat for lunch.

    In the olden days there were no cars so people had to either take bullock carts or walked. Now, this boy did not have any money so he had to walk to the next village. He walked until noon when came to a well.

    “I will eat my lunch here and then have a drink of water from the well,” he thought.

    He took out his chapattis and started to say out loud, “Shall I eat one or two or three or four or five or six or seven.”

   

    Now, in the well there lived seven genies. When these genies heard the boy counting they thought that he had come to eat them. They got very frightened and discussed the matter amongst themselves. They wanted to get rid of the boy but they did not want to kill him for they were not violent genies but very peaceful ones and wanted to settle the matter in a peaceful manner. So they decided to offer him a gift.

    The leader of the genies came out of the well and stood before the boy. The boy was startled at first but then took courage and asked, “Who are you?”

    “I am a genie and I live in this well with my six brothers,” the genie replied. “We heard you wanted to eat us all. Please, don’t do that. We mean no harm to anyone and to show our gratitude I have brought you a gift. Take this stove. It is a magic stove. Whenever you want to eat you just say, “Stove, give me food” and the stove will give you whatever you want.”

    The boy realized that the genies were scared of him more than he was scared of them because they thought he was greater than them.

    “Alright, I will not eat you,” said the boy, “since you have brought me this gift.”

    “Thank you so much,” said the genie. “We are all very grateful to you.”

    So saying, he vanished in the well.

    The boy took the gift and went on his way, happy to get such a gift. He knew his mother would be very happy, but first he had to go to his sister in the next village and see how she was doing and then return home to his mother.

    By nightfall he reached his sister’s village and on to her house. The sister was very happy to see him. Then, the boy told her all about his adventure and showed her his gift and told her to keep it in a safe place until he would go home and then he would take it with him.

    The sister did not seem too happy about his gift. She just congratulated him offhandedly and went on with her work. The boy was surprised at her attitude but did not say anything.

   

    Then, he tried out the stove. He said, “Stove, give me vegetable biriani” and at once a big pot appeared with a very delicious looking biriani. That day everyone ate that biriani. It was the most delicious biriani anybody had ever eaten.

    After a few days, the boy decided to go home. So he asked his sister for his stove which the sister gave it to him silently.

    The boy went on his way. He did not take the same route home as he did not want to meet those genies again. He reached home by nightfall and showed his stove to his mother and told her everything about his adventure. The mother was amazed to hear everything her son told her.

    After taking his bath and getting refreshed the boy decided to try out the stove. He said, “Stove, give me biriani” and at once there was a big pot of biriani. The mother and son had a good meal. From that day onwards they did not have to worry about their meals. They just asked and they got what they wanted.

    After a few months the boy decided to go and visit his sister again.

  

  He started on his journey the same way that he did the last time. He took seven chapattis with him and took the same route that he had taken the last time. When he reached the well again he sat down and took out his chapattis and started to count.

 

 “How many shall I eat today?” he asked. “Shall I eat one or two or

three or four or five or six or seven?”

    Again the genies were very upset when they heard that and the leader brought a goose to the boy.

    “Please, don’t hurt us,” he said pleadingly. “I have brought you this goose. It will lay you a golden egg every day. All you have to do is to say, “goose lay me an egg” and the goose will lay you a golden egg. Please accept it?”

    “Very well,” said the boy. “I shall not hurt you. Thank you for the gift.”

    With that the boy went away to his sister.

    Once more, he related his adventure to his sister. His sister again congratulated him offhandedly and went on her work. Again he gave the goose to his sister for safekeeping.

    After a few days, he decided to go home. He took his goose from his sister and went home the same way that he had taken the last time that he had returned home.

   Once he was home he related to his mother everything that had happened to him and showed her the goose.

    “Goose, lay me an egg,” commanded the boy, but nothing happened. The boy was rather puzzled. He knew that the genies would never lie to him. And so he tried again and nothing happened. He tried several times but still nothing happened. Then, he knew that he had been cheated. His sister had changed the goose with an ordinary one. He became very angry. Now he understood why his sister had congratulated him offhandedly. It was because she was jealous.

    “Mother, my sister has cheated me,” he said. “What shall I do?”

    “Why don’t you go and ask her?” the mother suggested.

   “If I know her,” the boy said, “she’ll just deny the whole thing and say that the genies had cheated me. I think I’ll go to the genies and ask if they had done so.”

    “No, no, my son,” said the mother fearfully. “The genies are very dangerous. Do not cross swords with them. They will kill you.”

    “Don’t worry, Mother,” he said. “I shall be very careful. Besides they are very peaceful genies. I know they will help me.

    The old woman tried to dissuade the son from going to the well, but the son would not give in.

    The next day, he set out very early in the morning. He took with him the seven chapattis that his mother had made for him.

  Once he reached there he sat himself down beside the well and started to count the way he did before.

    The genies were angry. They thought the boy was trying to take advantage of their peacefulness and so the leader of the genies appeared.

    “Are you trying to take advantage of our peaceful behavior?” he asked, angrily.

    “No, I’m not,” replied the boy, fearlessly. “The gift that you gave me last time is not working. The goose has not laid even one egg. Did you cheat me by any chance?”

    “What?” the genie roared in anger. “Are you accusing me of cheating you? You mortals are so ungrateful.”

    “Please, don’t get angry,” the boy said, pleadingly, seeing that if did not make amends the genies would most certainly kill him. “The goose that you gave me does not lay any golden eggs.”

    “Then, you have been cheated by someone but not by us,” said the leader of the genie, calming down. “We never lie, because if we lied nobody would trust us anymore. Whom did you give your goose for safekeeping?”

    “I gave it to my sister,” replied the boy.

    “Then your sister took it, most probably,” said the genie. “I can help you if you want.”

    “Please, do,” said the boy, in frustration, not knowing what to do.

    The genie put his head in the well and shouted, “Bring me that flute.”

    At once, another genie brought a flute.

    “Take this flute,” he said, giving it to the boy. “This is no ordinary flute. This is for defeating your enemies. You ask your sister about the goose. If she denies it you play the flute and everything in the room will start to attack her and she’ll tell you the truth.”

    The boy thanked the genies and went on his way.

    When the boy reached the sister’s place, the sister received him innocently as if nothing had happened. The boy went inside the house. He said nothing about his gift. Now, the sister was rather curious to know if he had any gift this time. Her brother refreshed himself and had his dinner but still did not say anything at all. She could bear it no longer.

    “Haven’t you got any gift this time?” she asked curiously.

    “Why do you ask?” asked her brother. “Last time I got a goose it did not even lay golden eggs as they had claimed. I think they are lying.”

    “Oh! I don’t think they were lying maybe something happened,” she said innocently.

    “What could happen?” he asked looking at her closely. “I gave it to you for safekeeping and you couldn’t take it, could you?”

   “Of course not,” she said going red in the face. “May be you left it somewhere on the way here and someone replaced it.”

    “What if I told you that I did not leave it anywhere when I was coming here, because I never stopped anywhere on the way?” he asked again. “What if I told you that you took it?”

     “How can you say such a thing?” she asked angrily. “You know, I would never do anything like this.”

    “Either you give me my goose or else I use my gift,” threatened the brother.

    “So you do have a gift but you do not want to tell me,” the sister said getting angrier by the minute. “Well, I do not have your goose, so there.”

    “Well, you leave me no choice,” he said and took out his flute and started to play.

    Now, as soon as he started playing the flute, the broom which was in the corner started to beat the sister and then came clothes hangar and then a chair that was standing near the wall lifted itself and wanted to come and hit her. Seeing this, the sister panicked.

    “Stop! Stop!” she cried. “I’ll give your goose. I took it. I’m sorry. I’ll never ever do it again. Now, please tell everything to stop.”

    Seeing that his sister had learnt a lesson he ordered the things to go back to their places. Then, the sister went and brought the goose and gave it to her brother.

    The boy took the goose to his mother and they lived happily ever after.