To steal, or not to steal?
Once there was a kingdom called Vijayanagar. Krishnadevaraya was the king of the kingdom. Tenali Ramakrishna was the favorite of the king’s poets, and he was also the wisest in the kingdom.
One day the king brought one rare brinjal plant to the palace for farming. He maintained strict security around the garden so that no one would steal any brinjal from the garden.
One day the king invited every poet in the kingdom for dinner and served his rarest brinjal curry to every poet.
Everyone was so delighted with the brinjal curry and praised the king for bringing that unique brinjal plant and managing it properly without losing it.
The king noticed Tenali Ramakrishna eating it voraciously, so he ordered servants to pack extra brinjal curry for Tenali Ramakrishna. The servants did exactly what they were ordered to do.
Tenali Ramakrishna said, “thank you, your majesty. I thought my wife had lost the opportunity of savoring this delicious culinary stuff. I’d really appreciate your noble gesture.”
“It’s okay,” said the king.
Tenali Ramakrishna was overwhelmed with joy and carried that brinjal curry to his home, and gave it to his wife.
The wife also tasted it and experienced a similar kind of ecstasy as her husband did.
The wife said, “oh dear, this is marvelous. I have never tasted this kind of flavor. It is really unique and novel.”
Tenali Ramakrishna said, “yes, it is. Our king brought this from a very far away land to our kingdom. This brinjal is very limited in the world. Only the richest of riches can buy this unique plant, and we are very lucky that we can relish its curry,”
“Then, why don’t you bring a few brinjals to our home, and I will make an even better curry with it?” said his wife.
Tenali Ramakrishna said, “no, it is not that easy to steal brinjals from the palace. Our king safeguarded it with many soldiers.”
“You are the wisest man in the kingdom. It is not that complicated for you to steal a few brinjals from the garden, is it?” said his wife.
Ramakrishna said, “it is not impossible, but if I get caught then it would be such a disgrace for me and I might be expelled from the kingdom for such a shameful act.”
His wife had been adamant about it and told him that she won’t eat anything until he brings those brinjals. Looking at this, Tenali Ramakrishna doesn’t seem to have any other option other than fulfilling her desire, so he decided to steal it eventually.
Tenali Ramakrishna jumped the wall and plucked three brinjals from the garden. Fortunately, no one had seen him since it was a pitch-black night. He gave it to his wife and told her to make delicious brinjal curry that he wouldn’t forget in his lifetime.
The brinjal curry was ready and both loved it and relished it to the fullest.
But the wife said, “it feels that our son is missing this delightful, delicious brinjal curry. It is so wrong that we are not allowing him to have this. We are such bad parents.”
Tenali Ramakrishna said, “no, it is not possible. If the king ordered an investigation on this then we would be trapped since he is a child.”
“You are the wisest man in the kingdom. You know how to circumvent these situations, don’t you?” the wife said.
He said, “okay, I have an approach.”
He poured water on the stairs and in front of his house. His wife had no idea what he was doing, but she knew he had a plan.
Tenali went on to the roof with a bucket full of water and splashed the water on his son.
When he woke up he told him, “Come on, get up. It’s raining. Get inside the house and have some dinner then you can go to sleep.”
Since it was night, his son couldn’t differentiate whether it was raining or not. He could only feel the wetness of the stairs and the surroundings of his house. Plus, the somnolence.
Tenali’s wife served dinner to her son when he was drowsy and sleepy, so he ate it and slept.
The next morning, the king found out that someone had stolen 3 brinjals. A chief advisor in his kingdom firmly said, “this is definitely Tenali’s lousy job, your majesty. No one had the guts to steal brinjals from the garden other than Tenali.”
Instantly, the king summoned Tenali and his son to the king’s chamber.
The king asked Tenali’s son, “what did you eat in yesterday’s dinner?”
“The brinjal curry and it was delicious, your majesty,” the child replied
The chief advisor told Tenali Ramakrishna to admit his crime, but he didn’t.
Instead, he said, “yesterday my son slept very early. He must be saying something which he had got in his dream.”
Then the king asked again, “What did you do yesterday after coming from school?”
“After coming from school, I did my homework; I played for some time, and then went on to the roof to sleep. After sleeping for some time, it rained and I then had my dinner and slept,” the boy replied.
The chief advisor was surprised by the boy’s reply because yesterday it didn’t rain. The king thought that the child obviously had a dream and thought he ate brinjal curry.
Listening to this, the king freed Tenali without any punishment, but later on, he admitted his burglary and was pardoned by the king for his witty idea.
