Tiidu, the Piper - Part Four

In the Kingdom of Kungla, Tiidu wandered around looking for people who wanted a servant. 

However, though many people wanted to engage Tiidu, Tiidu realized that working for none of them would help him in getting rich quickly.  So he refused to go to work for any of them.

At last Tiidu knocked on the door of a rich merchant who needed a servant to work in the kitchen. 

Tiidu went and worked at the merchant’s house. The merchant's house had vessels made of iron, copper, brass and tin like all houses in Kungla. There were even vessels made of silver and gold. The food in the merchant’s house was cooked in silver saucepans and bread was baked in a silver open. All the dishes were made of gold.

Tiidu worked in the kitchen for the rich merchant and in two years he had saved a lot of money. 

By this time Tiidu had a passion to save more and more money. It went so bad that Tiidu would not even spend money on necessary things. Even when his master asked him to buy new clothes, he would not do it.

Finally, the master could not tolerate the loose old and torn clothes that Tiidu wore and ordered Tiidu to get new clothes with his next month’s wages. 

Finally, having no choice, Tiidu bought a cheap coat. 

It so happened that after that, the merchant had a great feast on account of the christening of his youngest child. For that too Tiidu received handsome clothes as a gift from the merchant. 

Tiidu wore the clothes and went out to the garden and that is when he saw the old man who had started all this, in Kungla.

As soon as the old man saw Tiidu, he smiled at him. “What have you done with the pipes that you used to play?” 

Tiidu shook his head. “I work as a servant here and I have not had a chance to play my pipes.” 

The old man laughed at Tiidu. “You are a fool. You should have used your pipes. If you had you would have made as much money with your music as you would have when you get your wages. Go home and get your pipes and play them and you will see whether I am right or not.”

Adapted from Andrew Lang’s Fairy Tales