A long time ago in India, there lived a poor oil-seller named Dena. He owed three hundred rupees to a money- lender named Lena. He simply didn’t have the money to repay Lena. So, one night, he ran away from home and fell asleep on a peepal tree that grew near a well.
It so happened that on that night, the spirits of the place were active. They took the tree with Dena on it to a seashore far away. The movement awoke him and he was astonished to see the sea in place of the well! And strange glowing red insects seemed to be flying around him. He looked carefully and found that they were not insects but some kind of glittering stones. He collected four of them and tied them up in his dhoti (a piece of clothing). Then he slept again.
In the morning, Dena found that he had been transported with the tree back to the well. He ran home to tell his wife all about his adventure and showed her the stones. But she thought they were quite useless.
Just then, Lena came to take his money. He saw the stones and realised they were rubies. Dena didn’t know their value. Lena agreed to take the stones in repayment for the loan. Dena gave him the stones, pleased to be free of his debt.
Lena sold the stones to the minister for ten thousand rupees. The minister took the rubies to the King who rewarded him with ten villages! The King gave the rubies to his wife.
The Queen was very dissatisfied and said that four rubies were not enough. “I want eight more stones to make them into a necklace!” she demanded.
The King threatened to punish the minister if he didn’t get more stones. The minister called Lena and Dena.
“We can go only when the spirits come to the tree,” explained Dena, “And they will come on a full-moon night that falls on Sunday!”
So, they all waited for the suitable night and then sat on the peepal tree. They were transported to the enchanted seashore. Their eyes were dazzled by the rubies. They kept grabbing them, greedy for more.
In their greed they had forgotten that the spirits would carry the tree away at dawn. When they looked around, the tree had gone and the four of them were stuck forever on the seashore. They lost everything they had.
