THE WEAVER AND THE

STRANGER
A STORY TELLING ACTIVITY FROM- OJAS, AARUSH, ARNAV, YAJUUS,
VIBHOR, JAY AND DEEPANSH
WHAT IS A FOLKTALE ?

• Folktales are stories in the oral tradition, or tales that people tell
each other out loud, rather than stories in written form. They're
closely related to many storytelling traditions, including fables,
myths, and fairy tales. Every human society has its own folktales;
these well-known stories, handed down between generations, are
an important way of passing along knowledge, information, and
history.
Once upon a time there was a certain weaver who became so
indigent and poor that he went to a grain seller and borrowed forty
rupees. "If I do not return within a year," said he, "take my house
and all it contains. They are yours.“
So, the weaver wandered off over the hills, and in a lonely place he
saw a light, and going to it, he found there a man sitting on the
ground. He sat by his side, but the man spoke never a word. At last,
the weaver said, "Why, man, can't you speak? Say something, at
least. Do you not see I am a stranger?"
"My fee," answered the man, "is twenty rupees. Hand me twenty
rupees, and I will speak."
The weaver counted out twenty rupees and gave them to him,
eagerly waiting to see the result. But all the man said was, "Friend,
when four men give you advice, take it."
Said the weaver to himself, "I have only twenty rupees left, and if I
venture on another question, I shall lose that, too!" But a weaver's
curiosity is very great, so he counted out his balance, handed it to
the man, and said, "Speak again."
Then the man spoke a second time, and what he said was this,
"Whatever happens to you -- even if you rob, steal, or murder --
never breathe a word of it to your wife."
Soon after, the weaver took up his wallet and trudged along until he
came to another desolate place, and there he saw four men sitting on
the ground round a corpse.
"Whither away?" said they.
"I am going to that village across the river," answered he.
"Do an act of charity," said they. "We were carrying this body to the
river. Take it up, as you are going that way, and throw it in for us."
Immediately they laid the corpse on his bare back and started him
off. But as he went along, he felt the most horrid pricking across his
loins. "In the name of God," he cried, "what is this corpse doing?
Are these knives or needles?"
He could not stop to lay the corpse down, because it was a fat
corpse, and he would never have been able to get it up again. So, he
went on groaning to the river, dropped it on the bank, and began to
examine it. What was his surprise to find fastened round the waist
of the corpse numbers of little bags filled with diamonds! He at
once pounced on them, threw the corpse into the river, and started
for home.
Arriving in all safety, he paid off the grain seller, presenting him as
well with five gold mohurs [coins], bought a handsome mare and a
nice saddle, hired servants and took to fine clothes, and lived on
roast fowl and rice pudding every day.
• In the same village the lumbardâr [headman] was a man well-to-
do in the world, and he, noticing the style in which his humble
friend lived, sent his wife to gossip with the weaver's wife.
• "Not long ago," she began, "I used to give you cotton to spin for
me, and now what a lady you are! However, I am now your friend.
Your husband I see has bought a mare and a handsome saddle, and
he has a servant to follow him. Where did he get all the money?
You might tell me."
• "Indeed, I don't know," answered the woman.
• That night the wretched weaver had no rest. "Tell me,” Said his
wife,
• again and again, "where you went to, and how you got all that
money."
• "No, no," answered he, "I can't tell you. The best thing you can do
is not to tease me, as once you know the secret, it will be told
everywhere, for women are like sieves."
• The next morning, he went out half dead with worry, and when he
returned for his food, he found his wife still asleep, and nothing
ready. "Get up, wife," cried he. "Get up, I want my breakfast."
• "Why should I get up?" said she. "What kind of husband are you,
and what kind of wife do you take me for? You treat me like a
child, and tell me nothing."
• "Best for you not to know," replied he.
• "Yes, but tell me, “Said she. "Not a word shall pass my lips."
• "Well," said he, "I was told on my travels that if I drank half a pint
of mustard oil in the morning, when I got up, I should see treasure
everywhere."
• In the course of the day in came her friend, and the woman laughs
and says, "Oh, I have found out everything! I have found out
everything!"
• "What is it? Quick, tell me!" said the lumbardâr's wife.
• "My husband said," answered she, "that when he drinks half a pint of
mustard oil he sees all the treasures buried by the old kings, so I advise you
to give your husband and your six children half a pint each, and drink some
yourself, and you will see treasure too."
• The woman at once ran home, bought some mustard oil, and at night
persuades her whole family to drink it, though she took none herself. In the
morning she rushes into their rooms and cries, "Get up! Get up, and look for
treasure!"
• But, alack! She finds them all lying dead and stiff.
• Now, when the king heard of this, he called for her, and all she could say
was, "The weaver's wife deceived me, and told me to do it."
• But the weaver's wife denied it, saying, "I never told her.
I expect she is carrying on with some low fellow, and, not
to be interfered with, she got rid of her husband and
children."
• So, the lumbardâr's wife was hanged, and so ends the
story, all the trouble having been caused by a woman who
could not keep a secret.