A
poor woman had only one son. She worked hard cleaning
houses and grinding grain for the well-to-do families
in town. They gave her some grain in return and she
lived on it. But she could never afford to buy nice
clothes or toys for her son. Once, when she was going
to the market with some grain to sell, she asked her
son, "What can I get you from the market?"
He promptly replied, "A drum, Mother, get me a
drum."
The
mother knew she would never have enough money to buy
a drum for her son. She went to the market, sold the
grain, and bought some gram flour and some salt. She
felt sad that she was coming home empty-handed. So
when she saw a nice piece of wood on the road, she
picked it up and brought it home to her son. The son
didn't know what to do with it.
Yet
he carried it with him when he went out to play. An
old woman was lighting her wood stove with some cow
dung patties. The fire was not catching and there was
smoke all around and it made the old woman's eyes
water. The boy stopped and asked why she was crying.
She said that she couldn't light her fire and cook.
The boy said, "I have a nice piece of wood and
you can start your fire with it." The old woman
was very pleased, lit the fire, made some bread, and
gave a piece to the boy.
He
took the bread and walked on till he came upon a
potter's wife. Her child was crying and flailing his
arms. The boy stopped and asked her why the child was
crying. The potter's wife said the child was hungry
and she had nothing in the house to give him. The boy
gave the bread in his hand to the hungry child, who
ate it eagerly and stopped crying. The potter's wife
was grateful to the boy and gave him a pot.
When
he walked on, he came to the river, where he saw a
washer man and his wife quarreling. The boy stopped
and asked the man why he was scolding and beating his
wife. The washer man said, "This woman broke the
only pot we had. Now I've nothing to boil my clothes
in before I wash them." The boy said,
"Here, don't quarrel, take this pot and use
it." The washer man was very happy to get a
large pot. He gave the boy a coat in return.
The
boy walked on. He soon came to a bridge, where he saw
a man shivering in the cold without so much as a
shirt on him. He asked the man what had happened to
his shirt, and the man said, "I was coming to
the city on this horse. Robbers attacked me and took
everything, even my shirt." The boy said,
"Don't worry. You can have this coat." The
man took the coat and said, "You're very kind,
and I want to give you this horse."
The
boy took the horse, and very soon he ran into a
wedding party with the musicians, the bridegroom, and
his family, but all of them were sitting under a tree
with long faces. The boy stopped and asked why they
looked so depressed. The bridegroom's father said,
"We're all set to go in a wedding procession.
But we need a horse for the bridegroom. The man who
was supposed to bring it hasn't arrived. The
bridegroom can't arrive on foot. It's getting late,
and we'll miss the auspicious hour for the
wedding." So the boy offered them his horse, and
they were delighted. When the bridegroom asked him
what he could do in return, the boy said, "You
can give me something: that drum your musician is
carrying." The bridegroom had no trouble
persuading the drummer to give the drum to the boy.
The drummer knew he could easily buy another with the
money he was going to get.
The
boy now rushed home to his mother, beating his new
drum, and told her how he got it, beginning with a
piece of wood from the roadside