Baital began telling another story to King Vikramaditya as he walked towards his kingdom:
Once, two Brahmin brothers lived in the city of Magadha. They were famous for their wisdom. The King of Magadha, Surya Narain, was told about this. So, he appointed both the Brahmin brothers as ministers in his royal court.
One day, two men came to the King’s court. They were quarrelling non-stop. They wanted to settle a dispute. They were fighting over a necklace. Both said they had proof that the necklace belonged to them. The King was confused. So, he called the Brahmin brothers. He said to them, “Prove yourselves by identifying the real owner of the necklace.” The younger brother smelled the necklace and the hands of the men and said, “This necklace belongs to that hefty-looking man.” The hefty-looking man was extremely very happy to listen to the judgement of the Brahmin brothers. He said, “Your Majesty, the necklace really is mine.”
The man continued, “But, in reality, we had come here to test the skill of the Brahmin brothers. And we are happy to say that they have passed our test. Please forgive us.” The King was very happy. He rewarded the Brahmin brothers with many precious gifts.
Days passed by. One day, the King got a message. It was from the neighbouring king. They were not on friendly terms but the king had sent an offer of friendship. King Surya Narain was in a dilemma whether to accept the friendship or not. So, he called the Brahmin brothers. He told them, “Go to the neighbouring kingdom. Find out the reason behind the King’s offer of friendship.”
So, the two Brahmin brothers went to see the neighbouring King. They spent some time with him. Then they came back and reported to their King, “Your Majesty, though the King has offered his hand in friendship yet please be careful. This offer of friendship may turn out to be a passing phase.”
The next day, King Surya Narain received a costly gift from the neighbouring King. The gift was a beautiful throne-like cushioned chair with precious stones. The King was very impressed by the chair. He decided to sit on it to test how comfortable it was. As he was going to sit on it, the elder brother came there. He warned the King, “Your Majesty, please do not sit on this chair! I feel there is a hair in the cushioned seat of the chair.”
The King was shocked to hear this. The soldiers were called in to find the hair. Inside the chair cushion, there indeed was a hair. It was very hard. The King got the hair examined by experts. They found that the hair had been smeared with deadly poison.
Here Baital ended his story. He asked King Vikramaditya, “Vikram, tell me which of the two Brahmin brothers was the wiser. If you do not answer my question knowingly, I will break your head into pieces.” King Vikramaditya replied, “Baital! Though both the brothers were highly gifted yet the elder brother was the wiser as he could detect the presence of the hair in the cushion.”
Baital said, “Vikram, you are too good. But as you have spoken and broken the silence, I am going to depart from you.” So, Baital flew away from King Vikramaditya’s shoulder. Vikramaditya tried to stop him but failed to do so. King Vikramaditya got exasperated at Baital’s escape. He drew his sword and ran after him to teach him a lesson.
