There was an old man who was intensely proud of two things–his long, white beard that reached down to his chest, and his ability to sleep the moment his head touched the pillow. One day, Tenali Raman asked the old man how he arranged his beard when he slept.
One night the man suddenly remem-bered Raman’s question. He became acutely conscious that his beard was under the blanket. He lifted it from under the blanket, and placed it above it. This made him feel that something was not quite right. So he tucked the beard under the blanket again. But he soon felt it would be better if it were out. In and out went the beard–first under the blanket, then above it, then under once again. The old man spent a sleepless night. Next morning, the first thing he did was cut his beard to chin level, to the great joy of his daughter who, for several months, had been urging him to do just the same thing.
