Hello, everyone.
The story that I am going to tell you is about Bunwas. I hope you
remember Bunwas. I have written two of his stories, ‘Bunwas and the King’ and ‘Bunwas
and the Cheater. Well, today I am going to tell you another of his hilarious
stories.
Read
on and find out when a street food seller tries to cheat a beggar and Bunwas intervenes
to help the beggar.
Bunwas and the Beggar
Once
there was an old beggar. Someone once gave him a stale piece of bread. He was
wondering how he was going to eat such a dry tasteless piece of bread when as
he was walking he saw a man roasting mishkaki. Mishkaki is meat cut into small
pieces and then marinated in ginger, garlic paste and some spices. These are
then put in a skewer and then roasted over coals. It is a very delicious dish.
The
beggar stood there looking at the man roasting the mishkaki and he had an idea.
He went over and held his stale bread over the mishkaki where a lot of smoke
was coming out. As you probably know that the smoke has a lot of aroma of
whatever you are roasting. The man who was roasting saw him but did not say
anything. Now when the beggar saw that the bread had absorbed enough aromas and
had become quite moist he went away to one side started eating his bread.
Now
here, when the mishkaki owner saw that the beggar had eaten his bread he called
him over and told him to pay up. The beggar was surprised!
“I’m
sorry, but pay you for what?” asked the beggar.
“You
pay me for the taste of my mishkaki,” replied the owner.
An
argument started with the owner insisting the beggar pay up and the beggar
insisting he did not eat his mishkaki. A crowd gathered around to see what the argument
was about. As they were arguing Bunwas happened to pass by. When he saw the
crowd he decided to investigate. He made his way where the argument was going
on.
“Why
are you arguing?” Bunwas asked them.
“He
has eaten my taste,” replied the mishkaki owner, “and he does not want to pay
for it.”
“He
is lying,” protested the beggar, “I have not eaten his taste.”
“How
did he eat your taste?” asked Bunwas.
“Well,
I was roasting my mishkaki and he came and held his bread over it and took my
taste. Then he ate it. See!” complained the man.
Bunwas
turned to the beggar and asked him, “Did you do that?”
“Yes,
but I did not eat his mishkaki,” the beggar protested again.
Bunwas
then turned to the man and asked him, “How much does he owe you?”
The
owner of the mishkaki told him.
Bunwas
put his hand in his pocket and took out some money.
“Count
carefully,” he told the owner.
He
started dropping the money on the counter one coin at a time. The owner watched
greedily and counted. When all the money was on the counter, he asked the
owner, “Did you count the money?”
The
man nodded his head and reached out to take it but before he could do so,
Bunwas reached out and took the money and put it in his pocket.
The
man watched open mouthed! Then he said angrily, “Why did you put the money in
your pocket. It belongs to me. Give it to me.”
Bunwas
looked at him calmly and said, “That was not your money. The beggar here, ate the
taste of your mishkaki. He did not
actually eat it. So you just get the sound
of the coins but you do not actually get it. See!”
So
saying he told the beggar to go on his way and he went on his, leaving the
mishkaki man very annoyed and angry.
The
crowd who had been watching and listening with interest, began to laugh at the
man now, because he had not succeeded in cheating the poor beggar.
