Sahil Gupta

Once king Krishnadeva Raya sent a message to the ruler of a neighbouring country. The message read, “Send me a blue diamond as large as a pigeon’s egg or else.” The king on getting the message wrote back: “We don’t have such a diamond and if we had…” The first king got very angry and […]

A man was caught stealing a bag of onions and taken to king Krishna-deva Raya. The king gave him a choice of three punishments eat the onions he had stolen at one sitting; submit to a hundred lashes of the whip or pay a fine. The man said he would eat the onions. He began

One day, all Brahmins, decided that there was no point in all of them worrying about their various problems. “Let us appoint a Worry Man; somebody who will worry for all of us,” said the senior Brahmin. Everybody hailed it as a great idea. When one of the elders suggested that Tenali Raman, the cobbler,

A rich landowner was on his deathbed. Gasping for breath, he told his three sons to dig under his bed when he was gone, and saying that, gave up the ghost. Some days later, the sons dug at the spot and unearthed three pots, placed one above the other. The topmost pot contained mud; the

One day, Tenali Raman was going to his sister’s house in another village when he ran into a gang of dacoits. “Who are you?” asked the dacoit chief, glowering at him. “I’m a school teacher,” said the Raman.“A school teacher?” sneered the chief. “And do you test your students regularly?” “Yes,” said Raman.“Well,” said the

Once Tenali was expecting a visit of his old friend. He gave two ripe mangoes to his servant. He asked him to slice them and serve the fruit when the man came. The servant gave in to temptation and ate all the slices. Suddenly, he saw the man, his master was expecting, coming towards the

King Krishnadeva once expressed the opinion that scholars were the cleverest men in his kingdom. Tenali, the Court Jester, immediately told that businessman were cleverer. A few days later Raman called a scholar to the palace. Raman told him that the king wanted his moustache and asked him for his price. The scholar, overjoyed, asked

Once a poet wrote a poem in praise of king Krishnadeva Raya and pleased king. The asked him what he would like as a reward. “Give me a hound,” said the poet. The court members looked at one another in disbelief. They felt the poet had missed a golden opportunity to make some money and

Once king Krishnadeva Raya had a parrot of which he was excessively fond. He kept it in a silver cage and fed it fruit and nuts and anything else the bird asked for. The parrot longed for freedom and often asked for it but the king would always reply, “Ask for anything else.” One day,

Tenali Raman had a large appetite and was known to eat enormous quantities of food especially when invited to feasts. One day, a zamindar decided to test his capacity and invited him to lunch. Raman ate as much as three men would have done and then emitted a loud belch. “Enough?” asked his host. “No

One morning a villager stepped out of his hut and saw huge, round footmarks in the mud outside his dwelling. Soon there was a large crowd outside his hut. They followed the tracks and found that they ran all through the village to the other side. “Let us not panic,” advised a villager. “There might

There were two brothers who were always up to some mischief. If somebody had been locked up in his house or if somebody’s cow had been painted red, one always knew who the culprits were– the brothers. One day the boys’ mother asked Tenali to talk to her sons and put the fear of God

One day, a demon came to see Tenali who was working in his field. “These fields belonged to my father’s father,” said the demon, “I will take half of whatever you grow in these fields.” Raman was frightened but he kept his wits about him. “You can take whatever grows above the ground, Your Excellency,”