Once upon a time, there lived a very rich merchant who was so wealthy that the streets of the town could be paved with his gold and still he would have many bags of gold left. His wealth was inherited by his son. But his son wasted it, and soon his money was all gone. Along with it all his friends who only wanted to have a good time also deserted him.
One of them sent him an old cracked trunk saying, “Pack up, and be off!” All he had left was an old dressing gown and a pair of slippers that he wore. There was nothing left to pack!
So, he himself got into the trunk and found that it was magical! In a flash he found himself flying high above the houses and the trees and right out of the city…. Delighted, he flew up into the clouds.
When the trunk finally came down, he found himself in Turkey. He hid the trunk in the woods and covered it with leaves before walking into a town near by. With his dressing-gown and slippers he managed to appear a part of the crowd.
He walked around exploring the city and came upon a splendid mansion. He asked a woman, who was standing by the roadside, whose mansion it was. “That’s where the king’s beautiful daughter lives,” he was told.
Curious to see the princess, he went to the woods and got his trunk from there and that night he flew in the trunk into the mansion. He found the beautiful princess asleep and knelt beside her. But she awoke, startled to see a stranger there!
“Who are you?” asked the frightened princess.
“I’m an angel from heaven,” lied the merchant’s son.
Soon he was telling her stories about many things he had seen and heard. And he kept praising her too, which pleased her a lot. When he asked her to marry him, she agreed readily.
“You must come on Saturday night for tea to meet my parents,” she said, “They love to hear stories too, but my mother likes a story with a moral and my father enjoys something that makes him laugh!”
The merchant’s son agreed to come and tell stories to her parents. As he was leaving, she gave him a golden sword with a jewelled handle. Thanking her he went straight to the market where he exchanged the sword for new clothes. Then he went to the woods to work out a suitable story.
Next Saturday, he came smartly dressed to meet the king and the queen. He found that the entire court had turned up for tea! The queen asked him to tell a story with a moral. “And also something to make us laugh!” added the king.
The young man began, “This is a story about a young man who met a princess. This young man was not quite honest. He said he was an angel from heaven. She believed him and so did her parents.”
“What stupid people they must have been!” laughed the king, “Who would have believed such a silly story?”
“They did!” confirmed the young man, “In fact they even permitted him to marry their daughter, and he did.”
“What happened after that?” asked the princess, who was listening with a small frown on her face.
“They found out that he was not an angel after all! But you see, he had a magic flying trunk. Since he could fly in the trunk, they thought he was like an angel anyway!”“What is the lesson from this?” asked the queen.
“The moral is simple. You must never blindly believe what people tell you. It must be proved before you accept the truth,” he said.
Now everyone was delighted, except the princess, who looked in a slightly doubtful way at the young man. But since her parents had agreed, the wedding day was fixed and celebrations began in the kingdom.
The merchant’s son thought he too should do something to celebrate. So, he decided to bring some fireworks and give a grand display from the air, sitting in the flying trunk!
He got into the trunk with all kinds of fireworks. When they began to go off, people looked up in wonder and amazement with their eyes side open.
“Look!” they said, pointing to the man in the flying trunk, “It’s the young man who will be marrying the princess!”
But a spark set fire to the trunk and the young man just managed to escape. He knew that he couldn’t marry the princess now because he could not use the flying trunk any more. So he ran away!
He wandered around and earned money by telling people stories. And he told his own story too – the one about the flying trunk and the princess!
