नोला भाई

Summary

A king with four queens had no children. A sage visited the palace, but the queens ignored him while playing chess. The angry sage cursed them. The king, who was a tyrant who looted and kidnapped women, returned from a failed hunt. An old woman complained that her son was killed and her daughter-in-law and daughter were kidnapped by the king's men. The king's guru arrived and rebuked him for his sins. The king repented, freed the girl, and went to the forest for three months of penance. The guru managed the kingdom, ending injustice. Upon the king's return, the guru gave him a staff and told him to pick four mangoes and feed them to his queens as blessed fruit. The queens took the mangoes. The youngest queen left hers on a shelf and a mongoose bit it. She ate the bitten mango anyway. All four queens became pregnant. The three elder queens gave birth to princes, but the youngest gave birth to a mongoose. The three princes grew up and went hunting, with the mongoose brother following. They made him pick fruit for them, then beat him and drove him away. He eventually found work with a potter, tending donkeys. When the potter and his wife left, the mongoose tricked their children into revealing where their parents' silver was hidden. He fed the silver to a one-eyed donkey. The potter returned and gave the mongoose the donkey. The mongoose returned home to find his father dead and the kingdom ruined. His mother was poor. He had her bring a pot and a pestle, and he beat the donkey, which then produced silver coins. The three elder queens and princes saw this and bought the donkey, but when they tried the same, the donkey died. They complained, but people sided with the mongoose. The story concludes that greedy people, whether kings or rich men, are soon destroyed by the cries of the poor.