Once upon a time, there lived an old man who had a lump on the left side of his face. He felt the lump irritating and did everything to remove it but could not. So, he kept himself away from people. With time, the lump got bigger. He lost all hope and knew that he had to live with the lump throughout his life. One day, he went to the forest to cut wood. It started raining and the strong wind blew. The old man was afraid and hid inside the hollow of an old tree. He waited for the rain to stop. Then, he heard some voices in the distance. Soon, the voices started coming closer and closer. He looked out of the hollow and saw some ogres setting a great fire. Thereupon, they started drinking, singing and dancing. Watching them having so much fun, the old man no longer felt scared.
The Old Man Lost his Lump
The old man found it so engaging that he dashed out of the hollow and began dancing. The ogres were surprised to see the old man. They laughed and were impressed by the way the old man danced. The ogres praised him and their leader told the old man to come every night and dance with them. The old man promised to come every night. But some of the ogres were not convinced, “We must take something from him of value so that he may keep his promise.” Then, they told the leader to take off his lump as it was considered good luck and he would miss it very much. The leader was convinced. He grabbed the old man’s lump and wriggled it off without any pain. Now, all the ogres ran away before the sunrise. The old man was overjoyed to feel his face to be smooth and without a lump. He forgot about cutting wood, and hurried home.
The Old Man and the Neighbour
When the old man returned home, his wife was happy to see him without the lump. The old man told her everything about the previous night. Another old man, who lived next door, had a lump on his right cheek. He had also tried to remove his lump but could never get rid of it. When he listened to the story of the first old man, he decided to do the same. He asked the first old man how he had done it. The good old man told his neighbour how he got his lump taken off. He told him how he heard voices in the distance when he was hiding, the appearance of the ogre and dancing. So the next day, the old neighbour found the same hollow tree and hid inside and waited for the ogres to come. Soon, the ogres came and started dancing. Their leader waited for the old man.
The Neighbour with Two Lumps
Hearing the leader talk of the old man, the second old man came out from the hollow and appeared before him. The leader thought that he was the same old man from the previous night. He asked the second old man to dance for them. The old neighbour did not know how to dance. He did whatever he could to impress the ogres. But the ogres were unhappy and scoffed at the neighbour. Angry and disappointed, the leader gave back the lump he took as a promise. He threw it onto the second neighbour’s left cheek. The lump stuck on his face. He tried to pull it off but could not. The ogres went away and the selfish old man returned home, now with two lumps.
