Once, a young man took his cows for grazing and on his way he tripped on a skull that looked very beautiful. He looked at it for a while and uttered aloud, “Oh my God, but why are you killing such beautiful people?” He then continued with his grazing. The next day also, he saw the skull and repeated his question. Suddenly, as he was about to go, he heard the skull reply, “O dear friend, I died because of lies!” The young man was surprised and ran away at once. On the third day, the same thing happened. The man ran back home and told everyone about the talking skull. Nobody believed him. The word reached the Chief and he summoned him. He said, “If you think it is a lie, come with me and witness for yourself!” The Chief asked him, “What do you want us to do if there is no talking skull?” The man replied boldly, “You can kill me!”
The Talking Skull
The young man led the Chief’s soldiers to the spot where the skull lay. The man turned to the skull and talked to him. But the skull did not reply. “Come on,” said the young man, feeling worried, “Talk!” But the skull did not talk. The soldier said, “Look young man, you have lied to our Chief and now we will kill you as you have said.” So, the soldier took out his sword and killed him. As they turned back to go to the village, they suddenly heard a voice saying, “This is what I told you, young man; and now you have also died like me.” The soldiers decided not to tell the Chief what had happened. They were scared what would happen to them if they spoke the truth. So, they only told him, “The man has lied to all of us! And we have killed him.”
