The lucky wise man

Long ago, there lived a man who was known for being wise and genius and people from far and wide came to seek his advice.

One day a caravan of people led by a minister arrived at his humble dwelling. They were the representatives of a king from a neighbouring kingdom. The king had sent them to seek his valuable advice to safeguard his reign. As the request was from the king of the neighbouring kingdom, the wise man honoured his invitation and they immediately proceeded to the king’s palace.


The king was young and handsome under whose reign the kingdom was prospering. His subjects loved him for his simplicity, fair and just rule. The king was the youngest of the eight brothers. He became the king after all his brothers died under mysterious circumstances. He was worried that he might befall the fate of his late brothers and the kingdom would be left without an heir. So the worried king wanted the wise man to find out the cause and devise remedies to put an end to all.

The wise man referred all the relevant religious texts and decided that he would go for a seven-day meditation. As desired, arrangements were made and he was provided with a quiet place to avoid disturbances.

It was the sixth night and he was to show the miracle on the seventh day. Unfortunately, he was not genuinely wise. He only came to lime light by sheer luck and on that day luck seemed to be avoiding him.

It was midnight and the day to exhibit his miracle was fast closing on him. But he hadn’t found any solution. He was very worried, so he uprooted one of the plank flooring of his room wanting to run away from the kingdom before the dawn on the seventh day. While sliding down the pillar, he slipped off and fell on one of the yaks sheltered on the ground floor. In search of the way out in darkness, he stretched out both his hands. Not able to hold on to anything, he rested himself leaning on the pole leaving everything at the god’s mercy.

Just then he heard a voice saying, “I have killed seven of the king’s brother and today the wise man rode on my back and measured my size stretching his hands”. After he heard that he climbed up to his room and pretended to meditate the few remaining hours of the day.

The day began well. It was a clear sunny day with a slight breeze. The wise man asked the king to arrange for a huge stock of firewood and burning oil. When everything was ready, he asked the king to bring the yak out of its shed. He confidently declared that the yak in the royal shed was a demon that had eaten all his brothers. The king could not believe for a while as the yak was a royal pet loved by all. The wise man made the people tie the yak on a post surrounded by layers of firewood and he set it on fire adding oil onto it.

As the huge flames of the fire leaked the air, the yak tried to extinguish the fire with its fur but failed. The demon in disguise was burnt to ashes and the king was freed from being eaten by the demon. In recognition of his help, half the kingdom was given to the wise man as a gift but of course the wise man refused the offer and went to live in his humble house.