IN THE KINGDOM PF FOOLS

[A Kannada folktale from A.K. Ramanujan’s Folk Tales from India]

Question and Answers

1. What are the two strange things the guru and his disciple find in the Kingdom of Fools?
A. When the guru and his disciple reach the kingdom of fools, they find the following two strange things-
a) All the people sleep during the day and work during the night time. They have trained the cattle and all the other animals also to do the same as they fear punishment at the hands of the king.
b) Everything in the kingdom of fools- a bag of rice or a bunch of bananas costs one duddu. The guru is astonished and his disciple is excited to realise that food is so cheap in the kingdom.

2. Why does the disciple’s decide to stay in the Kingdom of Fools? Is it a good idea? Answer: The disciple decided to stay in the Kingdom of Fools because he was delighted that everything cost a single duddu and everything was very cheap. All that he wanted was good and very cheap food. According to the Guru, staying there was not a good idea as they were all fools and so he felt this situation would not last long and was not sure about what they would do in the future.

 3. Name all the people who are tried in the king’s court, and give the reasons for their trial. 

Answer: Following people were tried in the king’s court: 

 The merchant whose house was burgled: Because his house’s wall was weak and it fell upon the burgular and killed him 

 The bricklayer who built the wall: Because he built a wall which was weak and which collapsed killing the burglar 

 The dancing girl: Because she distracted the bricklayer with her jingling anklets by walking up and down the road where bricklayer was laying the wall 

 The goldsmith: Because he didn’t complete the dancing girl’s order on time and so she had to go to the goldsmith a dozen times. 

 The merchant whose house was burgled (second time): because his father persuaded the goldsmith to finish his order first thereby delaying the dancing girl’s order. Since the merchant’s father died, the merchant had to be executed in his father’s place 

 The disciple: Because the merchant was too thin to be executed by the newly made stake and a fat man was required to fit the stake. The disciple was very fat, hence he was caught

4. Who is the real culprit according to the king? Why does he escape punishment? Answer: The real culprit according to the king is the merchant because although his old father was the real murderer he was dead and someone had to be punishment in his place. He escapes the punishment because he is too thin to be properly executed on the stake. 

5. What are the Guru’s words of wisdom? When does the disciple remember them?’ Answer: The guru’s words of wisdom were that it was the city of fools. He advised the disciple to leave the city because he would not know what they would do next. The disciple remembers this when he was going to be executed.

6. How does the guru manage to save his disciple’s life?
A. The guru is a wise and intelligent man. He traps the foolish king in his talks. He says that as he is the Guru, he is senior to his disciple and so, he should be killed first. The king gets confused to see the Guru’s eagerness to die. He asks him the reason for it. On being promise that he would be killed first, the Guru says that as the stake is a new one, it has not killed any criminal. He adds that the person who would be killed by the state first would be reborn as the king of the kingdom. The second person who would be killed by the stake would be reborn as the Minister of the kingdom. The king considers the Guru to be genuine and so, tells his minister that they should not lose their kingdom in the next birth. In this way, the king decides to save his kingdom and get himself and his minister killed by the stake in place of the guru and his disciple. Hence, the Guru saves his disciple’s life.