A destitute blind Brahman and his wife relied entirely on their son for survival. Each day, the young man went out to beg for whatever he could find. This routine dragged on for a while until he grew exhausted from living such a miserable life. He decided to seek his fortune in another land. Informing his wife of his plan, he instructed her to find a way to care for the elderly couple during his absence, which would last several months. He pleaded with her to work diligently to prevent his parents from becoming upset and cursing him.
One morning, he set off with some food wrapped in a bundle and walked day after day until he arrived at the capital of a neighboring country. There, he sat down by a merchant's shop and asked for alms. The merchant asked where he came from, why he had come, and his caste. The young man replied that he was a Brahman, wandering from place to place, begging to support himself, his wife, and his parents. Feeling compassion for him, the merchant suggested he visit the kind and generous king of that land and offered to accompany him to the court.
As it happened, the king was searching for a Brahman to oversee a newly constructed golden temple. The king was delighted when he met the Brahman and learned of his good and honest nature. He immediately appointed him as the caretaker of the temple and arranged for an annual salary of fifty kharwars of rice and one hundred rupees.
Two months later, with no news from her husband, the Brahman's wife set out to find him. By a stroke of luck, she arrived at the same city where he had ended up. There, she learned that every morning at the golden temple, a golden rupee was given out in the king's name to any beggar who came for it. The next morning, she went to the temple and reunited with her husband.
"Why have you come here?" he asked. "Why did you leave my parents? Don't you care if they curse me and I die? Go back immediately and wait for my return."
"No, no," she replied. "I can't go back to starve and watch your elderly parents die. There's not a grain of rice left in the house."
"O Bhagawant!" exclaimed the Brahman. He quickly scribbled a few lines on a piece of paper and handed it to her. "Take this to the king. He will give you a lakh of rupees for it." With these words, he sent her away, and she departed.
On that scrap of paper, the Brahman had written three pieces of advice:
First, if a person is traveling and arrives at an unfamiliar place at night, they should be very careful about where they stay. They should not close their eyes to sleep unless they are certain it is safe, as closing their eyes might mean closing them forever.
Secondly, if a man visits his married sister with great wealth and pomp, she will welcome him warmly, driven by what she can gain from him. However, if he visits her in poverty, she will scowl and disown him.
Thirdly, if a man has a task to accomplish, he must do it himself with all his might and without fear.
Upon returning home, the Brahmani informed her parents about meeting her husband and the valuable piece of paper he had given her. However, not wanting to approach the king herself, she sent a relative in her place. The king read the paper and, angered, ordered the man to be flogged and then dismissed him.
The next morning, the Brahmani decided to take the paper herself. As she walked along the road to the court, reading the advice, the king’s son encountered her and asked what she was reading. She explained that the paper contained pieces of advice for which she sought a lakh of rupees. The prince asked to see it, and after reading it, he issued her a parwana (written order) for the amount and continued on his way. Grateful and relieved, the Brahmani used the money to buy a substantial amount of provisions, enough to sustain them for a long time.
In the evening, the prince told his father about his encounter with the woman and the purchase of the piece of paper, expecting praise for his actions. However, the king became even angrier and banished his son from the country.
The prince bid farewell to his mother, relatives, and friends, then rode off on his horse, not knowing where he was headed. At nightfall, he reached a place where a man met him and invited him to stay at his house. The prince accepted the invitation and was treated with great hospitality. Mats were spread for him to sit on, and the best provisions were set before him.
"Ah!" thought the prince as he lay down to rest, "this is a situation where the first piece of advice from the Brahmani applies. I will not sleep tonight."
It was fortunate he made this decision because, in the middle of the night, the man hosting him rose with a sword in hand, intending to kill the prince. The prince quickly stood up and spoke.
"Do not slay me," he said. "What profit would you gain from my death? If you killed me, you would regret it later, just like the man who killed his dog."
“What man? What dog?” he asked.
“I will tell you,” said the prince, “if you will give me that sword.”
So he gave him the sword, and the prince began his story:
"Once upon a time, there lived a wealthy merchant who had a pet dog. He suddenly fell into poverty and had to part with his beloved dog. He borrowed five thousand rupees from a fellow merchant, leaving the dog as collateral, and used the money to restart his business.
Not long after this, the second merchant's shop was broken into by thieves and completely ransacked, leaving goods worth barely ten rupees. However, the faithful dog observed the entire incident. It followed the thieves, discovered where they had hidden the stolen items, and then returned to its new owner.
In the morning, the merchant's household was filled with sorrow and despair upon discovering the theft. The merchant himself was nearly driven to madness. Meanwhile, the loyal dog kept running to the door, tugging at his master's shirt and pajamas, as if urging him to go outside. Finally, a friend suggested that the dog might know where the stolen goods were hidden and advised the merchant to follow the dog's lead.
The merchant agreed and followed the dog to the exact spot where the thieves had concealed the items. The dog began to dig and bark, indicating the location of the buried goods. The merchant and his friends dug at that spot and soon uncovered all the stolen property. Not a single item was missing; everything was there just as the thieves had taken it.
The merchant was overjoyed. Upon returning home, he immediately sent the dog back to its original owner with a letter tucked under its collar. In the letter, he praised the dog's intelligence and begged his friend to forget the loan, offering an additional five thousand rupees as a gift.
When the dog's owner saw it returning, he thought, "Alas! My friend must be demanding repayment. How can I pay him? I haven't had enough time to recover from my recent losses. I'll kill the dog before it reaches the house and claim someone else must have done it. That will end my debt—no dog, no loan."
So, he ran out and killed the poor dog. As the dog fell, the letter slipped from its collar. The merchant picked it up and read it. He was overwhelmed with grief and regret when he learned the truth.
"Beware," the prince continued, "lest you do something you would later give your life to undo."
By the time the prince finished his story, it was nearly morning. He then departed, rewarding the man for his hospitality.
The prince then traveled to the land ruled by his brother-in-law. He disguised himself as a jogi and sat under a tree near the palace, pretending to be deeply absorbed in worship. News of this man and his remarkable piety reached the king's ears. Intrigued, and desperate to find a cure for his ailing wife after numerous failed attempts with hakims, the king thought this holy man might be able to help her.
The king sent for the jogi, but the jogi refused to enter the palace, insisting that his dwelling was under the open sky. He declared that if the king wished to see him, he must come himself and bring his wife to the jogi's location. Complying with the jogi's request, the king brought his wife to him.
The holy man instructed her to prostrate herself before him, and after she had remained in this position for about three hours, he told her to rise and go, assuring her that she was cured.
In the evening, there was great consternation in the palace because the queen had lost her pearl rosary, and no one knew anything about it. Eventually, someone went to the jogi and found the rosary on the ground where the queen had prostrated herself. When the king heard this, he was furious and ordered the jogi to be executed. However, this severe order was not carried out, as the prince bribed the guards and managed to escape the country. This incident confirmed to him the truth of the second piece of advice.
One day, dressed in his own clothes, the prince was walking along when he saw a potter alternately crying and laughing with his wife and children. "O fool," he said, "what is the matter? If you laugh, why do you weep? If you weep, why do you laugh?"
“Do not bother me,” said the potter. “What does it matter to you?”
“Pardon me,” said the prince, “but I should like to know the reason.”
“The reason is this,” explained the potter. “The king of this country has a daughter whom he is obliged to marry off every day because all her husbands die on their first night with her. Nearly all the young men in the place have perished this way, and now our son is next in line. We laugh at the absurdity of a potter’s son marrying a princess, and we cry at the terrible fate awaiting him. What can we do?”
“Truly a matter for both laughing and weeping. But weep no more,” said the prince. “I will take your son’s place and marry the princess instead. Just provide me with suitable garments and prepare me for the occasion.”
So the potter provided him with beautiful clothes and ornaments, and the prince went to the palace. At night, he was led to the princess's apartment. "Dreadful hour!" he thought, "Am I to die like the scores of young men before me?" He gripped his sword firmly and lay down on his bed, determined to stay awake all night and see what would happen.
In the middle of the night, he saw two Shahmars emerge from the princess's nostrils. They crept toward him, intending to kill him as they had done with her previous husbands. But the prince was prepared. As the snakes reached his bed, he struck at them with his sword and killed them.
In the morning, the king came as usual to inquire about the night's events and was surprised to hear his daughter and the prince talking cheerfully together. "Surely," he said, "this man must be her true husband, as he is the only one who has survived the night with her."
“Where do you come from? Who are you?” asked the king, entering the room.
“O king!” replied the prince, “I am the son of a king who rules over such-and-such a country.”
Upon hearing this, the king was overjoyed and invited the prince to stay in the palace, appointing him as his successor to the throne. The prince resided in the palace for over a year before requesting permission to visit his homeland. The king agreed and generously provided him with elephants, horses, jewels, and ample money for the journey and as gifts for his father. Thus, the prince set out on his journey.
On his way, he had to pass through the kingdom ruled by his brother-in-law. News of his arrival reached the king, who came with hands bound in respect and a rope around his neck to show his humility. He earnestly begged the prince to stay at his palace and accept whatever hospitality he could offer. During his stay, the prince reunited with his sister, who greeted him with smiles and kisses. Before leaving, he recounted to her how she and her husband had treated him during his first visit and how he had escaped. He then gifted them two elephants, two beautiful horses, fifteen soldiers, and jewels worth ten lakh rupees.
Afterward, the prince continued to his own home and informed his parents of his return. Unfortunately, his parents had both become blind from weeping over the loss of their son. “Let him come in,” said the king, “and put his hands upon our eyes, and we shall see again.” The prince entered and was warmly welcomed by his parents. When he laid his hands on their eyes, their sight was miraculously restored.
The prince then shared with his father all that had happened to him and how he had been saved multiple times by following the advice he had bought from the Brahmani. The king expressed his deep regret for having sent him away, and the family was once again filled with joy and peace.