The Charmed Ring (a Hindu folktale)

A merchant started his son in life with three hundred rupees, and bade him go to another
country and try his luck in trade. The son took the money and departed. He had not gone far
before he came across some herdsmen quarreling over a dog, which some of them wished
to kill.
« Please do not kill the dog, » pleaded the young and tender-hearted fellow. « I will give you
one hundred rupees for it. » Then and there, of course, the bargain was concluded, and the
foolish fellow took the dog and continued his journey.
He next met with some people fighting about a cat. Some of them wanted to kill it, but
others not. « Oh! please do not kill it, » said he. « I will give you one hundred rupees for it. » Of
course they at once gave him the cat and took the money.
He went on till he reached a village, where some folk were quarreling over a snake that had
just been caught. Some of them wished to kill it, but others did not. « Please do not kill the
snake, » said he. « I will give you one hundred rupees. » Of course the people agreed and were
highly delighted.
What a fool the fellow was! What would he do now that all his money was gone? What could
he do except return to his father? Accordingly he went home.
« You fool! You scamp! » exclaimed his father when he heard how his son had wasted all the
money that had been given to him. « Go and live in the stables and repent of your folly. You
shall never again enter my house. »
So the young man went and lived in the stables. His bed was the grass spread for the cattle,
and his companions were the dog, the cat, and the snake, which he had purchased so
dearly. These creatures got very fond of him, and would follow him about during the day
and sleep by him at night; the cat preferred to sleep at the young man’s feet, the dog at his
head, and the snake over his body, with its head hanging on one side and its tail on the
other.
One day the snake in course of conversation said to its master, « I am the son of Raja
Indrasha. One day, when I had come out of the ground to drink the air, some people seized
me, and would have slain me had you not most opportunely come to my rescue. I do not
know how I shall ever be able to repay your great kindness to me. Would that you knew my
father! How glad he would be to see his son’s preserver! »
« Where does he live? I should like to see him, if possible, » said the young man.
« Well said! » continued the snake. « Do you see yonder mountain? At the bottom of that
mountain there is a sacred spring. If you will come with me and dive into that spring, we
shall both reach my father’s country. Oh, how glad he will be to see you! He will wish to
reward you, too. And how can he do that? If he asks you what you would like, you would
perhaps do well to reply, ‘The ring on your right hand, and the famous pot and spoon that
you own.’ With these in your possession, you would never need anything, for the ring is
such that a man has only to speak to it, and immediately a beautiful furnished mansion will
be provided for him, while the pot and the spoon will supply him with all manner of the
rarest and most delicious foods. »
Attended by his three companions, the man walked to the well and prepared to jump in,
according to the snake’s directions. « O master! » exclaimed the cat and dog when they saw
what he was going to do. « What shall we do? Where shall we go? »
« Wait for me here, » he replied. « I am not going far. I shall not be long away. » On saying
this, he dived into the water and was lost to sight.
« Now what shall we do? » said the dog to the cat.
« We must remain here, » replied the cat, « as our master ordered. Do not be anxious about
food. I will go to the people’s houses and get plenty of food for both of us. » And so the cat
did, and they both lived very comfortably till their master came again and joined them.
The young man and the snake reached their destination in safety, and news of their arrival
was sent to the Raja. His highness commanded his son and the stranger to appear before
him. But the snake refused, saying that it could not go to its father till it was released from
this stranger, who had saved it from a most terrible death, and whose slave it therefore
was.
Then the Raja went and embraced his son, and saluting the stranger welcomed him to his
dominions. The young man stayed there a few days, during which he received the Raja’s
right-hand ring and the pot and spoon, in recognition of His Highness’s gratitude to him for
having delivered his son. He then returned.
On reaching the top of the spring he found his friends, the dog and the cat, waiting for him.
They told one another what they had experienced since the three had last been together,
and they were all very glad. Afterward they walked together to the riverbank, where it was
decided to try the powers of the charmed ring and pot and spoon.
The merchant’s son spoke to the ring, and immediately a beautiful house and a lovely
princess appeared, with hair as golden as the magic ring. He spoke to the pot and spoon
also, and the most delicious dishes of food were provided for them. So he married the
princess, and they lived very happily for several years until one morning the princess, while
combing her tresses, put the loose hairs into a hollow bit of reed and threw them into the
river that flowed along under the window.
The reed floated on the water for many miles, and was at last picked up by the prince of
that country, who curiously opened it and saw the golden hair. Then the prince rushed off to
the palace, locked himself up in his room, and would not leave it. He had fallen desperately
in love with the woman whose hair he had picked up, and refused to eat, or drink, or sleep,
or move, till she was brought to him.
The king, the prince’s father, was in great distress about the matter, and did not know what
to do. He feared lest his son should die and leave him without an heir. At last he determined
to seek the counsel of his aunt, who was an ogress.
The old woman consented to help him, and bade him not to be anxious, as she felt certain
that she would succeed in getting the beautiful woman for his son’s wife. She assumed the
shape of a bee and flew off buzzing and buzzing and buzzing. Her keen sense of smell soon
took her to the beautiful princess, to whom she appeared as an old hag, holding in one hand
a stick by way of support.
The hag introduced herself to the beautiful princess and said, « I am your aunt, whom you
have never seen before, because I left the country just after your birth. » She also embraced
and kissed the princess by way of adding force to her words.
The beautiful princess was thoroughly deceived. She returned the ogress’s embrace, and
invited her to come and stay in the house as long as she could, and treated her with such
honor and attention that the ogress thought to herself, « I shall soon accomplish my errand. »
When the ogress had been in the house three days, she began to talk of the charmed ring,
and advised the princess that she, and not her husband, should keep it, because the latter
was constantly out hunting and on other such expeditions and might lose it. Accordingly the
beautiful princess asked her husband for the ring, and he readily gave it to her.
The ogress waited another day before she asked to see the precious thing. Doubting
nothing, the beautiful princess complied; the ogress seized the ring, and reassuming the
form of a bee flew away with it to the palace, where the prince was lying nearly on the point
of death. « Rise up. Be glad. Mourn no more, » she said to him. « The woman for whom you
yearn will appear at your summons. See, here is the charm, whereby you may bring her
before you. »
The prince was almost mad with joy when he heard these words, and was so desirous of
seeing the beautiful princess that he immediately spoke to the ring, and the house with its
fair occupant descended in the midst of the palace garden. He at once entered the building,
and telling the beautiful princess of his intense love, entreated her to be his wife. Seeing no
escape from the difficulty, she consented on the condition that he would wait one month for
her.
Meanwhile the merchant’s son had returned from hunting and was terribly distressed not to
find his house and wife. There was only the bare ground, just as he knew it before he had
used the charmed ring that Raja Indrasha had given him. He sat down and determined to
put an end to himself. Presently the cat and dog came up. They had gone away and hidden
themselves when they saw the house and everything disappear. « O master, » they said, « stay
your hand! Your trial is great, but it can be remedied. Give us one month, and we will go
and try to recover your wife and house. »
« Go, » said he, « and may the great god aid your efforts. Bring back my wife, and I shall live. »
So the cat and dog started off at a run, and did not stop till they reached the place whither
their mistress and the house had been taken. « We may have some difficulty here, » said the
cat. « Look, the king has taken our master’s wife and house for himself. You stay here. I will
go to the house and try to see her. »
So the dog sat down, and the cat climbed up to the window of the room, wherein the
beautiful princess was sitting, and entered. The princess recognized the cat, and informed
the creature of all that had happened to her since she had left them.
« But is there no way of escape from the hands of these people? » she asked.
« Yes, » replied the cat, « if you can tell me where the charmed ring is. »
« The ring is in the stomach of the ogress, » the princess said.
« All right, » said the cat, « I will recover it. Once we get the ring, everything is ours. » Then the
cat descended the wall of the house, and went and lay down near a large rat’s hole and
pretended she was dead.
Now at that time a great wedding chanced to be going on among the local rat community,
and all the rats of the neighborhood were assembled in that particular hole where the cat
had lain down. The eldest son of the rat-king was about to be married. The cat got to know
of this, and at once conceived the idea of seizing the bridegroom and making him render the
necessary help. Consequently, when the procession poured forth from the hole, squealing
and jumping in honor of the occasion, the cat immediately spotted the bridegroom and
pounced down on him.
« Oh! Let me go, let me go, » cried the terrified rat.
« Oh! Let him go, » squealed all the company. « It is his wedding day. »
« No, no, » replied the cat. « Not unless you do something for me. Listen. The ogress, who lives
in that house with the prince and his wife, has swallowed a ring, which I very much want. If
you will procure it for me, I will allow the rat to depart unharmed. If you do not, then your
prince dies under my paw. »
« Very well, we agree, » they said. « Nay, if we do not get the ring for you, devour us all. »
This was rather a bold offer. However, they accomplished the thing. At midnight, when the
ogress was sound asleep, one of the rats went to her bedside, climbed up on her face, and,
inserted its tail into her throat; whereupon the ogress coughed violently, and the ring came
out and rolled onto the floor. The heroic rat immediately seized the precious thing and ran
off with it to the rat-king, who was very glad, and went at once to the cat, who released the
rat-king’s son.
As soon as the cat received the ring, she and the dog started back to go and tell their
master the good tidings. All seemed safe now. They had only to give the ring to the young
man, and he would speak to it, and the house and beautiful princess would again be with
them, and everything would go on as happily as before. « How glad master will be! » they
thought, and ran as fast as their legs could carry them.
On the way they had to cross a stream. The dog swam, and the cat sat on his back. Now the
dog was jealous of the cat, so he asked for the ring, and threatened to throw the cat into
the water if she did not give it up; whereupon the cat gave up the ring. Unfortunately, the
dog at once dropped the ring, and a fish swallowed it.
« Oh! What shall I do? What shall I do? » said the dog.
« What is done is done, » replied the cat. « We must try to recover it, and if we do not succeed
we had better drown ourselves in this stream. I have a plan. You go and kill a small lamb,
and bring it here to me. »
« All right, » said the dog, and at once ran off. He soon came back with a dead lamb, and gave
it to the cat. The cat got inside the lamb and lay down, telling the dog to go away a little
distance and keep quiet.
Not long after this a nadhar, a bird whose look can break the bones of a fish, came and
hovered over the lamb, and eventually pounced down on it to carry it away. Suddenly the
cat came out and jumped onto the nadhar, and threatened to kill the bird if it did not
recover the lost ring. This was most readily promised by the nadhar, who immediately flew
off to the king of the fishes, and ordered it to make inquiries and restore the ring. The king
of the fishes did so, and the ring was found and carried back to the cat.
« Come along now; I have got the ring, » said the cat to the dog.
« No, I will not, » said the dog, « unless you let me have the ring. I can carry it as well as you.
Let me have it or I will kill you. »
So the cat was obliged to give up the ring. The careless dog very soon dropped it again. This
time it was picked up and carried off by a bird.
« See, see, there it goes — away to that big tree, » the cat exclaimed.
« Oh! Oh! What have I done? » cried the dog.
« You foolish thing, I knew it would be so, » said the cat. « But stop your barking, or you will
frighten away the bird to someplace where we shall not be able to trace it. »
The cat waited till it was quite dark, and then climbed the tree, killed the bird, and recovered
the ring. « Come along, » the cat said to the dog when she reached the ground. « We must
make haste now. We have been delayed. Our master will die from grief and suspense. Come
on. »
The dog, now thoroughly ashamed of himself, begged the cat’s pardon for all the trouble he
had caused. He was afraid to ask for the ring the third time, so they both reached their
sorrowing master in safety and gave him the precious charm. In a moment his sorrow was
turned into joy. He spoke to the ring, and his beautiful wife and house reappeared, and he
and everybody were as happy as ever they could be.

(adapted from Indian Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs; original text in the public domain)