Once,
king Krishna Deva Raya wanted to expan his army. So he needed more hoses. He
decided to give one horse to be brought up by each person in his kingdom. He
also gave everyone a good supply of straw to feed the horses. Everyone except
Tenali Rama was happy with this plan. He shut his horse in one room and
everyday at exactly 9’O clock he gave the horse very little straw through the
window.
image courtesy: google images
He gave
the rest of the straw to his cows who became fat and healthy. At the end of a
year, the king wanted to see all the horses. All the people who had been given
horses to grow up, brought their horses for inspection. But Tenali Rama did not
bring his horse. On being questioned, he answered that his horse had become so
strong that he could not bring it to the court. The king was surprised on
hearing this.
He
said, “Alright, I will send my chief inspector to your house tomorrow morning
at 9 to inspect the horse there.” Tenali agreed. The next morning, the chief
inspector went to Tenali’s house. He had a long beard. Tenali took him to the
room where the horse was kept and asked him to look through the window. When
the inspector peeped through the window, naturally his beard went in through
the window first.
Seeing
the beard, the horse thought that it must be straw that was being given to him
at the fixed time. It caught hold of the beard in his teeth and pulled. The
inspector shouted in pain and tried to pull his beard back. But the horse knew
that this was the only food he would get all day and pulled with all his might
till the inspector los his beard. The inspector went running to the king. He
reported that indeed Tenali Rama’s horse was the strongest of them all.
This is
how sometimes even wise people can be deceived by clever people.
The
End.
