The King and the Broken Bow

It was the time of a brutal battle where an invading army had captured the kingdom and the royal forces had fled.  The ruler of the kingdom was running for survival and had reached a mountain. A storm was raging at the mountain at that time. The king was already nursing a deep injury. Because of the storm, the king was now covered in mud as he collapsed into a dark cave at the top of the mountain.

Resting against the cave wall was the king's most prized possession - it was a magnificent heavy bow carved from the finest wood and horn.

Unfortunately, as the king had tried to escape with his bow, he had stumbled. At the time, the bow had hit a huge boulder because of which the upper limb of the bow had cracked.

Now inside the cave, the king strung the weapon together to pull the string, and he realised what the problem was. 

The bow had lost its perfect symmetry. The bow could no longer shoot straight using any known archery techniques.

The king felt a bitter wave of despair because he realised that he had lost his kingdom, he was injured and now even his bow was about to break. 

The king felt defeated in the dark cave, as the storm raged outside.

The next morning the storm had cleared, but peace did not last for the king. He heard the thud of the boots up the cliff. The king peeked out of his cave and realised that enemy soldiers were climbing up the mountain.

Running away was impossible and all the king had was one damaged bow to fight back.

The king studied the weapon again. He realised that, instead of cursing the flaw with the weapon, he had to improvise, the king did not take a traditional Archer's stance, he stood awkwardly changing his grip and tilted his head and instead of aiming at the soldier, the king deliberately aimed to the right of the target and fired the arrow. 

As the arrow flew it curved at an impossible angle and struck the soldier. 

On seeing that he had hit his target, the king began launching a relentless defence. The bow was crooked and the arrows flew at an impossible angle. 

Because of this, the soldiers down the mountain could not make out where the arrow was coming from. They were terrified because they believed that this was an army that was practising sorcery, and so the enemy soldiers panicked and ran.

After this, armed with a renewed spirit, the king tracked his army and rallied his soldiers. 

Together, they did not launch into a traditional warfare. Instead, the king utilised asymmetric war tactics and drove the invaders out of his kingdom.

Adapted from Veera Gatha in Indian Folklore

The Mouse Merchant

 

In a wealthy city, there was a miserable young man who was weeping along the roadside. His father had passed away, leaving the young man and his mother very poor. The young man believed that he had no future and so he was feeling depressed.

At that moment, a wealthy and famous merchant Visakila came to the roadside with his friends. Visakhila pointed at a dead mouse near the street and turned to his friends. “A man with true focus and enterprise could pick up their dead mouse and start a business with it and eventually earn a fortune.”

Visakila's friends laughed it off. However, the young man saw this as a challenge. He picked up the dead mouse and went to the local tavern. 

There he found a cat owner who needed food for his pet.

When the young man gave the dead mouse to the cat, the owner of the cat gave the young man a handful of roasted gram.

The young man did not eat the roasted gram. Instead, he grounded the gram into a refreshing powder and mixed it with cool water. The young man took this to the edge of the forest and waited there. 

There were many wood cutters who were tired and returning home after a hard day's work. The young man politely offered the refreshing drink to the woodcutters. Gratefully the wood cutters accepted the drink  and in return the woodcutters gave the young man two pieces of firewood each.

The young man sold the firewood in the city market and used the money to buy some gram and molasses. With that the young man did this daily.

Soon, a massive storm hit the city. The storm blew branches into the royal gardens.

The royal gardener was worried because the king was supposed to come to the garden that day and the garden was a mess because of the storm. 

The young man came to the gardener and offered to help the gardner to clear the garden for free if he got to keep all the firewood that he had cleared.

Naturally the gardener agreed to this.

The young man offered sweet snacks to children playing nearby and asked them to clear the garden.

The children happily ate all the sweets and helped the old man and in return the children put all the firewood removed from the garden in the young man’s place.

The young man now had a massive stock of firewood. He sold the wood to the king’s potter at the premium price.

With this substantial capital, the young man opened a small shop and traded goods with traveling horse dealers. Eventually, the young man became one of the most prominent merchants in the empire.

Years later, the young man came to be known as Chuadutta. 

Chuadutta made a gold mouse encrusted with precious jewels and presented it as a gift to Visakila thanking the older man for the loan that built his entire empire.

Adapted from the Kathasarithsagara

The Woodcutter and the Diamond

There was once a woodcutter who lived in a village on the edge of a great forest. The  woodcutter worked day and night but he was very poor. 

One day the woodcutter cried out in frustration. “Why am I alone  undergoing friction and hard work while others walk in silk and gold?”

As an answer to his prayer an ascetic came near the woodcutter. 

The ascetic pulled out a muddy stone the size of a fist from his pouch and gave it to the woodcutter. “This is a rare uncut diamond.”

The woodcutter’s eyes widened in surprise. 

The ascetic however, shook his head. “First take  this stone to the market and ascertain its true price.” The ascetic smiled at the woodcutter. “Before you sell this diamond, come back and talk to me.”

The woodcutter agreed and he excitedly took the diamond to the village market.

First the woodcutter showed the diamond to a vegetable vendor. 

The vegetable vendor looked over the stone. “This is a heavy stone. I will give you two bags of potatoes for this.”

The woodcutter was taken aback. 

Then the woodcutter took the stone to a brass merchant.

The brass merchant nodded appreciatively at the stone. “This seems to be a rare stone. I can give you ten copper coins for this.”

The woodcutter refused to sell the stone to the brass merchant too and the woodcutter took the stone to the capital city. 

There the woodcutter showed the stone to the royal jeweler.

The royal jeweler removed the mud from the stone and looked into it. The jeweler was taken aback when he saw the stone. “Where did you find this? This is a rare uncut diamond worth a thousand gold coins now.” The jeweler was still breathless. “If this stone was polished by friction, this stone’s worth would not be measurable.” The royal jeweler shook his head. “I do not have enough money in the treasury to buy that polished jewel.”

The woodcutter took the stone back to the forest.

The ascetic was sitting near a fire when the woodcutter found him.

The ascetic smiled because he realized that the woodcutter had understood it. “We are all like this stone. When we are polished our worth is more than a kingdom. However now we judge our worth based on the opinion of the vegetable vendors and the brass merchants. Our hard work removes the dirt and lets our real diamond shine showing our true worth to the world.”

The woodcutter kept the stone but he did not sell it. He kept it in his home and started working hard and since then he never saw his hard work as difficult. 

He realized that this hard work was merely a precursor to show his true worth to the world.

Adapted from Indian Folklore