A Promise Kept

Often Krishnadeva Raya toured his kingdom to hear the complaints of his subjects and to set things right. Usually, Tenali Raman was also with him.
One day, the King saw a peasant working in the field and asked Tenali Raman to go and talk to him. Tenali Raman returned after speaking to him and told the King that the peasant had a plot of land that he farmed. “He pays the land revenue regularly, Sir. He earns forty varahas a month and uses them wisely to support his large family,” he explained.

“And how does he spend these forty varahas?” enquired the King.
“He spends ten on himself, ten for showing gratitude, ten as a return and ten on interest, Sir.”
“How does he manage all this?”
“Sir, he spends ten on himself. He shows gratitude to his wife by spending ten on her needs. What he spends on his old parents is a return for all that they have done for him, and he hopes that what he does for his children will be paid back by them with interest,” said Tenali Raman.

“What a fine solution to the riddle this is!” said the King, “Tenali Raman, I am going to pose this question to the courtiers and let me see if they can solve it. I order you not to reveal the answer to anyone else until you have seen my face a hundred times.
On returning to the palace, the King asked his courtiers, particularly the ashtadiggajas, to solve the riddle of the forty varahas. No one could find an answer. Then Peddana, one of the ashtadiggajas, asked the King for one day’s time to solve it. The King agreed.
That evening, Peddana went to Tenali Raman’s house. Surely, he would know the answer as he had gone with the King. Tenali Raman would not say a word about the riddle. Finally, Peddana took a pouch containing a hundred varahas and gave it to Tenali Raman in return for the answer.

The next day, Peddana told the solution to the King. The King knew that he must have got it from Tenali Raman, so he was summoned.
“I ordered you not to reveal the solution till you had seen my face a hundred times. You have disobeyed me and broken your promise!” thundered the King.
“No, Sir, I have not done that. I saw your face a hundred times on the hundred varahas he gave me before I told Peddana the answer,” replied Tenali Raman.
The King smiled. Tenali Raman was really a master trickster!

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