It was night and my sister and me used to hear story from our grandma before going to bed. Grandma promised to tell us the story about a false hermit and how a girl turned into a witch for him. She sat on her rocking chair and started swaying to and fro and said, "Once upon a time on the outskirts of a certain town stood a temple. Every day hundreds of devotees visit it. They offered fruits and coins before the deity.
One day a young man, who thought himself very clever, began to sport a tender beard, clothed beige clothes, and started living in a hut close to the temple. He sat with his closed eyes as if he was meditating. But he took care to be seen by all the visitors. He hardly spoke.
Town-folks thought him to be a holy man. By and by it became a custom with the devotees to look him up after they had worshipped the deity. They bowed to him and placed before him food and money as gifts. The fake recluse smiled at them and patted them on the backs. They were pleased, thinking that his blessings would surely do them good.
The young man soon became rich. With the money the visitors offered him he built a fine house near the temple and lived happily. He had six fellows at his command, which were good for nothing and became his disciples.
One day a rich merchant paid a visit to the temple along with his wife and beautiful daughter. As they were worshipping the deity with their folded hands, the false hermit watched them from his room, in the upper floor of his house.
The hermit liked the daughter of the merchant and thought, "How wonderful it would be to have her as my wife!" and sent for the merchant. When the merchant came, he received him very kindly.
The merchant was surprised, for he knew the hermit hardly spoke. The young man said, "Gentleman, you know I don't care to speak to ordinary mortals. It is out of sheer compassion for you that I decided to break my scared vow. I have the power to see the shape of things to come in future. I am sorry to say that a great misfortune is to befall you."
The merchant grew ashen pale and said, "My ship is aboard at sea. I have spent all that I have to heap it with valuable goods. My luck depends on the ship's safe return." A moan escaping from his lips.
The hermit said, "And for your information, your luck seems rather bad. Your ship is encountering a violent storm - right now! I am, to be sure, doing my best to save it from total wreckage. But how long I can battle your ill luck if its very cause is nurtured by yourself?"
The merchant fell on the holy man's feet and cried out, "I have no doubt that you are speaking right, but I don't understand a grain of it. Please help me to root out the cause of my ill luck, I beg you."
"You alone can root that out, I can of course guide you with my advice. Listen carefully. Do not lose heart. The cause of your ill luck is your daughter! No power on the earth or in heaven can save you as long as she is by your side. You must give her up immediately," said the hermit.
"But I am her father, how can I give her up?" asked the confused merchant.
Hermit answered it very easily, "shut her up in a casket and float the casket in the river! Being a father you can do it. I can't do it for you! Do it tonight by all means. Do not forget to place a lamp on the casket."
"No sir! I cannot do this my child in that manner. That would be worse than losing my ship," the merchant cried out, violently shaking his head.
The holy man laughed and patted affectionately on the back of the merchant. He said, " You naïve fellow, don't I see your daughter's future too in the mirror of my finger nails? It is so written in her destiny that a wonderful young man, who will be pleased to marry her, will save her. You cannot dream of a better bridegroom than he in the whole town, may be in the whole kingdom."
The merchant sighed with relief. After further reassurance from the hermit, he agreed to abide by his advice and took leave of him.
Although the merchant was left with no doubt about the bright future of her daughter, it was very painful for him to put the innocent girl sleep through some sedative. It was even more painful to put her in a casket and then float the casket down the river.
Abiding to the hermit's instructions, he placed a lamp on the casket. Hermit waited very anxiously for the sun to set. That very night, he with some of his trusted disciples waited impatiently on the desolate riverbank, his heart running pit-a-pat. Around midnight, they spotted a faint flicker in mid-stream. At his order a couple of his disciples swam into the river and drew the floating casket ashore.
It was with great difficulty that the hermit suppressed his glee at the smooth success of his scheme. He could have straightaway proposed to marry the merchant's daughter. But he was not sure if the merchant would welcome the proposal and, even if the daughter would. Now, he felt sure that while the merchant would be thankful to him for being saved from the misfortune, the girl would be grateful to him for being saved from certain death.
His disciples carried the casket into his bedroom. He then asked them to leave and, then as excited as a mouse at the sight of cheese, took the lid off the casket in great haste. No soon had he done so than he received a sharp slap in the face. Horrified, he tried to take a closer look at what emerged from the casket, but received an instant scratch in the eye.
As he covered his eyes with his palms, a savage bite took away a chunk of his bright nose. He shrieked and rushed out of his room, but not before the strange creature that hopped out of the casket had pulled his ears and planted a heavy spank on his cheek. Then it jumped out of his window, leapt onto a tree and escaped.
My sister interrupted in between to ask, " Who was in the casket, grandma?" she said it was monkey. And started again. The hermit ran for his life, at a total loss to understand how a beautiful girl turned into a dreadful monster. "A witch, a witch!" he shrieked while running. "Did he came back?" my excitement was pinching me to know about that crooked young man.
No! He never returned. He did wise not to, for his disciples would not have known him after what the monkey had done to his face! "What happened to the girl, I asked again, was she saved by someone else, did she get her bridegroom?" my grand ma asked me listen the story quietly as she was going to tell about her only. The girl got the best bridegroom in the kingdom after all! It so happened that before the false hermit saw the casket, the prince of the land, who was returning by boat from a hunting spree in the forest, had discovered it. Attracted by the lamp, he brought the casket aboard his boat and opened it, and discovered the sleeping beauty. As he had earlier captured a ferocious monkey from the forest, he substituted this beast for the beauty and set the casket adrift again. He did not neglect to put the lamp back in its place.
In the morning the prince led the girl to her father. The merchant was surprised - he expected some such thing - though he was extremely delighted. The prince than asked the merchant for the girl's hand and said he never thought to have such a beautiful wife!
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