Questions

1. Whose story did you find most believable and why?

The bandit’s story is not true because he wanted to keep his honour and be proud even after killing
the husband and therefore built his story such. The wife, whose shame has been taken away in order
to live a peaceful life in the society fabricated the story so that both the husband or the bandit can
be blamed for not being able to protect her which is correct in its own sense but not true as per
what happened in reality. The husband who should have been able to protect his wife’s dignity and
pride but failed to do so. As per the societal norms he is not worthy enough to be respected and
therefore to be saved of the shame stared to blame the wife completely for the mishap.

All three lied as per what they assume was expected best out of them in the society and to protect
their dignity. But in reality, as per me, it is the woodcutter who said the truth because he witnessed
the scene on his own and did not have a motive to kill anyone. If at all one has to be a truthteller it is
the woodcutter out of all. When asked about stealing the dagger his facial expressions immediately
turned pale and guilt ridden. It further states that he was already not happy with his deed on top of
the unfortunate turn of events but since he found the dagger, he decided to steal it in no one’s
presence when the bandit and the wife ran away and the husband was dead.

But even for stealing he wanted to repent and do something better as a punishment out of which he
agreed to take care of the baby. This tells us that he could be the most honest out of all the story
tellers.

2. What do you think really happened? How/who killed the husband?

In the best-case scenario, it is the bandit who killed the husband after being charged up by the wife.
The husband and the bandit would have fought as a fair chance but the husband already lost his will
and strength because of what happened to the wife and how the wife was ready to run away with
the bandit or ordered his husband to kill the bandit. He was already at a greater loss to be fully
charged up to fight strongly. Thus, the bandit defeated him.