Latest / Sandman Stories Presents / EP 309: Bengal- The Adventures of Two Thieves and of Their Sons part 1 (Day)

Transcript

EP 309: Bengal- The Adventures of Two Thieves and of Their Sons part 1 (Day) · Sandman Stories Presents

0:25
Welcome back, listeners to Sandman Stories Presents, a
0:28
folklore podcast where I read you to sleep or until the next
0:31
story. I'm your host, Dustin.
0:33
Today we are back in the book of Bengal folklore written down by
0:37
Lal Bahari Day. In this story, we'll learn about
0:40
two thieves and why crime might actually pay.
0:44
OK, let's begin the adventures of two thieves and of their
0:50
sons. Part 1.
0:54
Once Upon a time, 2 thieves lived in a village.
0:57
As they were well known as thieves, every theft in the
1:00
village was blamed on them whether they did it or not.
1:04
So they left the village and resolved to support themselves
1:07
by honest labor. They were soon both employed by
1:10
a homeowner. The one had to tend a cow and
1:14
the other had to water the chumpaka plant.
1:17
The older thief began watering the plant early in the morning.
1:20
He had been told to keep pouring water until it pooled around the
1:24
base of the plant. He poured bucket after bucket,
1:28
but it was of no use. No sooner was the water poured
1:31
on the plant then it was sucked up by the thirsty earth.
1:36
It was late in the afternoon when the thief, tired from
1:38
getting water, laid down on the ground and fell asleep.
1:44
The younger thief fared no better.
1:46
The cow he had to tend was the most vicious in the whole
1:49
country. When it was taken out to graze,
1:52
it galloped far away. It ran from 1 Patty field to
1:57
another. It ate the corn and crushed it.
1:59
It stomped through sugar cane plantations and destroyed the
2:02
crops for which the herder was soundly scolded by the field
2:05
owners. Between running after the cow
2:09
from field to field and the abuse poured not only upon him
2:13
but also upon his forefathers up to the 14th generation, the
2:17
younger thief had a miserable day.
2:21
After a long day, he finally caught the cow and brought it
2:24
back to the House of the master. The older thief had just woken
2:28
up when he saw the younger one bring home the cow.
2:31
Then the older one said to the younger brother, why are you
2:34
coming home so late? The younger thief said, What can
2:38
I say brother? I took the cow to the Meadow
2:41
where there is a big well near the tree.
2:44
I let the cow loose and began to graze without any trouble.
2:48
I spread my wrap on the grass under the tree, and there was
2:51
such a delicious breeze that I soon fell asleep, and I did not
2:55
wake until after sunset, and when I awoke I saw my cow
3:00
grazing contently by my feet. But how did you fare, brother?
3:06
The older thief? Oh, I had a jolly time.
3:10
I poured only one bucketful of water on the plant, and a large
3:13
pool rested around it. So my work was done and I had
3:18
the whole day to myself. I laid down on the ground, I
3:22
whistled, I sang, and at last I fell asleep.
3:26
And I am just waking up now. When this conversation ended,
3:31
the older thief, believing that what the younger thief had said
3:33
was true, thought that tending the cow was more comfortable
3:36
than watering the plant. And the younger thief, for the
3:40
same reason, thought that watering the plant was more
3:43
comfortable than tending the cow.
3:45
And they decided to switch jobs. The older thief.
3:50
Well, brother, I want the cow tomorrow.
3:53
You will take my work and I will take yours.
3:55
Is that OK? The younger thief?
3:58
Yes brother, just let me give you a bit of advice.
4:01
It was hard sleeping on the ground.
4:03
If you take a cot with you, you will have a great time.
4:08
Early the next morning, the older thief went out with the
4:10
cow, not forgetting his cot. And the younger thief began
4:13
watering the plant. He thought that one bucket full
4:16
or at most 2 buckets full of water would be enough, but what
4:21
a surprise that even 100 buckets were not enough water to water
4:26
the plant. He was dead tired from getting
4:29
water, the sun was going down and yet his work was not done.
4:34
At last he gave up through sheer weariness.
4:38
The older thief in the fields had it no better.
4:41
He took the cow next to the well the younger thief had spoken of,
4:44
put his cot under the large tree nearby, and then let the cow
4:47
loose. As soon as the cow was loose, it
4:51
went through the Meadow, over hedges, through Paddy fields and
4:54
destroyed the sugar cane plantations.
4:57
The elder thief was upset. He had to run all day long and
5:00
was insulted by the field owners.
5:03
But the worst part was that our thief had to run around the
5:06
Meadow with a cot on his head, for he could not put it down
5:10
lest it be stolen. When the other herders saw the
5:14
older thief running around after the cow with the charpoy on his
5:17
head, they laughed at him. The poor fellow bitterly
5:21
regretted changing jobs with great difficulty, and with the
5:25
help of the other herders, he at last caught the cow and brought
5:28
it home well after the village lamps had been lit.
5:32
When the two thieves met again, they merely laughed at each
5:35
other without saying a word. After dinner they laid down and
5:39
talked about their day. The younger thief.
5:43
Well, how did you fare, brother? Older thief?
5:47
Just as you fared. Or maybe better.
5:50
Younger thief. I am of the opinion that our old
5:54
lives as thieves were easier than trying to do honest labor.
5:57
Older thief, I agree. But Oh my, I have never seen a
6:02
cow like this. It is completely wild.
6:05
Younger thief. A mean cow is not rare.
6:09
I've seen some cows as mean. But have you ever seen a plant
6:12
like this? Chumpaka plant.
6:14
I wonder where the water goes. Is there a reservoir below its
6:17
roots? Older thief.
6:20
I'm thinking of digging it up to see what's underneath.
6:24
Younger thief. We should do that tonight when
6:27
the man and his wife are asleep at midnight.
6:32
The two thieves took shovels and began digging around the plant.
6:36
After digging a good deal, the younger thief hit something
6:39
solid. They were excited.
6:42
The younger thief saw that it was a large jar, and he thrust
6:45
his hand into it and found that it was full of gold.
6:48
But he said to the older thief, Oh, it is nothing, it's only a
6:52
large stone. The older thief, however,
6:55
suspected that it wasn't, but he was careful not to let the other
6:58
thief know. Both agreed to stop digging
7:01
since they had found nothing, and they went to sleep.
7:05
An hour or two later, when the older thief saw that the younger
7:08
thief was asleep, he quietly got up and went to the jar.
7:11
He saw the jar filled with gold. Digging near it, he found
7:15
another jar filled with gold. Overjoyed to find the treasure,
7:19
he decided to hide it. He took both the jars, went to
7:24
the reservoir nearby and buried them in the mud.
7:27
Then he returned to the house and quietly laid down beside the
7:30
younger thief, who then was fast asleep.
7:34
The younger thief who had first found the jar of gold, woke up
7:37
and softly sneaking out of bed, went to secure the treasure.
7:42
Going back, he didn't see the jars.
7:44
He assumed that his companion had hidden them.
7:48
He went back to the sleeping thief, hoping to find any clues
7:51
as to the treasure's hiding place.
7:54
He went over the body of his friend with the eye of a
7:56
detective and saw mud on his feet and near his ankles.
8:00
He immediately concluded the treasure must have been
8:02
concealed somewhere near the reservoir.
8:04
But in which part of the reservoir?
8:07
On which bank his ingenuity did not forsake him.
8:10
Here he walked all around the four banks of the pond.
8:13
When he walked around the three sides, the frogs on them jumped
8:16
into the water, but no frogs jumped from the fourth bank.
8:20
He therefore concluded that the treasure must have been buried
8:23
on the fourth bank. In a little while he found the
8:27
two jars filled with gold. He took them, and going into the
8:30
barn, brought out the cow and put the two jars on his back.
8:34
Then he left the house and started for his home village.
8:39
When the older thief got up at dawn, he was surprised not to
8:41
find his companion beside him. He ran to the pond and found
8:44
that the jars were not there. He went to the barn and he did
8:48
not see the vicious cow. He concluded the younger thief
8:51
must have run away with the treasure on the back of the cow.
8:55
And where was he going? He must be going to his
8:58
hometown. No sooner did this process of
9:02
reasoning pass through his mind than he decided to set out and
9:05
catch the younger thief. As he passed through the town.
9:11
He invested all the money he had and an expensive pair of shoes
9:14
covered with gold. He walked very fast, avoiding
9:17
all the public roads and making all kinds of shortcuts.
9:22
He saw the younger thief slowly trudging along with his cow.
9:26
He passed him on the highway and 200 yards ahead of him he threw
9:29
down a shoe. Then he walked another 200 yards
9:33
and threw down the other shoe near a large tree.
9:36
He hid himself among the thick leaves of the tree.
9:40
The younger thief coming along the public Rd. saw the first
9:43
shoe and said to himself, what a beautiful shoe that is.
9:47
It is gold. It would be a good shoe for a
9:50
rich man like myself. But what use is 1 shoe?
9:55
So he went on. In a short time he saw the other
9:58
shoe. He said to himself, here is the
10:01
other shoe. What a fool I was.
10:03
I should have picked up the first shoe.
10:04
However, it's not too late. I'll tie the cow to that tree
10:08
and go back for the other shoe. He tied the cow to the tree and
10:12
went for the first shoe about 200 yards down the road.
10:16
In the meantime, the elder thief climbed down from the tree,
10:19
united the cow, and rode it back towards his home village,
10:23
avoiding the King's Hwy. The younger thief returned to
10:27
the tree and found that the cow was gone.
10:30
He figured that it could only have been done by the older
10:32
thief. He walked as fast as his legs
10:36
could carry him and reached his home village long before the
10:39
older thief. He hid near the door of the
10:41
older thief's house. The moment the older thief
10:44
arrived with the cow, the younger thief accosted him,
10:47
saying, So you are a safe brother, let us go in and divide
10:50
the money. The older thief readily agreed.
10:54
They took the two jars off the cow and took them inside to the
10:57
courtyard. Then they went inside, bolted
11:00
the door and began dividing. They took 2 silver coins at a
11:04
time, one for the younger and one for the older, but finally 1
11:09
gold coin remained. The question was, whose was it?
11:13
Both agreed that it should be exchanged the next morning and
11:16
the silver cash divided equally, but who should hold on to it?
11:21
There were a lot of words over it, and after a great deal of
11:24
yay and nay, it was settled that the older thief should keep it,
11:27
and that the next morning they would exchange it.
11:31
In the night. The older thief said to his wife
11:33
and the other women of the house.
11:35
Look here, ladies, the younger thief will come tomorrow morning
11:37
and demand his share of the remaining gold coin.
11:40
But I don't want to share it. Do me a favor, tomorrow spread a
11:43
cloth on the ground in the yard. I will lay myself on the cloth,
11:47
pretending to be dead, and to convince people that I am dead,
11:51
put a basil plant near my head. When you see the younger thief
11:54
coming to the door, you start crying your eyes out.
11:57
Then he will go away, and I shall not have to pay his share
11:59
of the gold coin. To this proposal the women
12:03
readily agreed. So the next day, at about noon,
12:07
the older thief laid himself down in the yard like a corpse,
12:10
with the sacred basil near his head.
12:12
When the younger thief was seen approaching the house, the women
12:15
began to wail. And when he got closer,
12:17
wondering why they were crying, they said, Oh, where did you
12:21
both go? What did you bring?
12:24
What did you do to him? Look, he is dead.
12:28
And they began to weep and wail again.
12:31
The younger thief, seeing through the plot, said, Well, I
12:35
am sorry my friend and brother is gone.
12:38
I must now attend his funeral. You can all go away from here.
12:41
You are but women. I will see to it that his
12:43
remains are well burnt. He brought a quantity of straw
12:47
and twisted it into a rope, which he fastened to the legs of
12:50
the dead man and began tugging him, saying that he was going to
12:53
take him to the place of burning.
12:56
While the older thief was being dragged through the streets, his
12:59
body was getting dreadfully scratched and bruised, but he
13:02
held still in order to escape, sharing the gold coin.
13:07
The sun had gone down when the younger thief reached the
13:09
funeral pyre, but as he was preparing the wood, he
13:13
remembered that he had not brought any matches.
13:16
If he went back from matches, the corpse would run away.
13:19
What could he do? Finally he tied a rope to the
13:22
branch and hung the pretend corpse in the tree.
13:25
And he climbed the tree and sat on a branch.
13:29
He kept a tight hold on the rope lest it should break, and the
13:32
older thief run away. While they were up the tree, a
13:35
gang of robbers passed by. On seeing the corpse, the head
13:39
of the gang said, This raid of ours has begun very
13:42
auspiciously. Brahmins and pundits say that if
13:45
when starting on a journey once he's a corpse, it is a good
13:48
omen. Well, we have seen a corpse.
13:51
It is therefore likely that we shall meet with success tonight.
13:55
If we are, let's burn this dead body and then return home.
13:59
All the robbers agreed to the proposal.
14:02
Then the robbers entered the House of a rich man in the
14:04
village, put the family to the sword, robbed it of all of its
14:07
treasures, and did it so cleverly that not even a mouse
14:10
stirred in the village. As they were successful beyond
14:14
measure on their return, they decided to burn the corpse.
14:19
When they returned to the tree, they found the corpse hanging as
14:22
before. The older thief hadn't moved
14:26
because he didn't want to give up his half a coin.
14:28
The thieves dug a hole in the ground, brought fuel and laid it
14:31
in the hole. Then they took down the corpse
14:34
from the tree and laid it upon the pile.
14:36
And as they were going to set it on fire, the corpse gave out an
14:39
unearthly scream and jumped up. That very moment the younger
14:43
thief jumped down from the tree with a similar scream.
14:47
The robbers were frightened beyond measure.
14:49
They thought that an evil spirit called Adana had possessed the
14:52
corpse, and that their ghost jumped down from the tree.
14:55
They ran away in great fear, leaving behind the money and the
14:58
jewels that they had robbed from the rich man.
15:02
The two thieves laughed heartily, took up all the riches
15:04
of the robbers, and went home and lived merrily for a long
15:07
time. To be continued.
15:36
Wow, the two of them made their lives so much harder by arguing
15:39
over every single cent. They did more work avoiding
15:43
spending money than they would have gotten money for their
15:45
work. They did come out reaching the
15:46
end of this half of the story, but I do wonder what will happen
15:49
the second-half. And if you know Lalbahari Day,
15:52
that half a story was a good 20 pages.
15:55
I edited it down a little bit. And the podcast shout out is to
16:01
the History of Persia podcast. Trevor Kelly does a great job of
16:06
getting us through all sorts of cool Persian kings and empires,
16:11
and it's really a lot of fun to listen to.
16:15
And the listener shout out is to Rafa Gaza.
16:19
I know this episode will come out in a couple of weeks, but
16:22
I'm not sure that much will have changed.
16:24
The people of Gaza really do need your help.
16:26
Any sort of voices, any sort of power going towards those in
16:30
power trying to rectify the situation, Please, please,
16:33
please try to support our Palestinian brothers and
16:36
sisters. And so to my listener in Rafa,
16:40
please know it will get better. I say Alif Shukran what this
16:44
Belakhir. Thank you and good night.