They had been very happy together for a long time. Ratnamanjari had a painting in her chamber of a Vidyadhari female named Suvarnarekha. When she married Kandarpaketu, she warned him never to touch that picture. In the beginning, he followed her instruction. But gradually, his curiosity to find out what would happen if he touched the painting increased. Why Ratnamanjari had asked him not to touch it, he continued to wonder. One day, he was unable to stop his curiosity any more. He went up to the painting, and, making sure that no one was around, he reached out to touch it. As his hand touched the picture, he found himself kicked out of the golden kingdom of Ratnamanjari. “I became a mendicant after that and saw what happened in the house of this poor barber,” said Kandarpaketu to the King. “He is not to blame.” So he told the King the story of the barber.
Kandarpaketu’s Curiosity
