Loads of Tricks
One day a farmer's wife told her husband that a woman’s tricks can fill a thousand carts. She also asked him to thank his stars for she did not practise them.
The farmer answered arrogantly: “I am not frightened by your tricks.”
His wife said: “All right, then I’ll show you.”
She took a big fish and before daylight buried it in her field. When the farmer began to plough the land he discovered it there, and joyfully bringing it home showed it to his wife and said : “I found this in the field. Cook it and make puries."
His wife cooked the fish and prepared puries but when he asked for food she served him plain chappaties and salt. The farmer glared at her and said: “Where is the fish which I gave you to cook”
She said: “Fish, where did it come from? Don’t make a fool of me!”
The farmer had seen the fish being cooked with his own eyes, and hearing her lie to him, ran to beat her. She shouted out in a loud voice: “Run folks! This man is beating me for nothing!”
Hearing her cries the people of the village came running, and asked: “What has happened?”
The villager said: “Today I brought a very big fish from my field. This woman cooked it before my eyes but does not give it to me now!”
Everyone laughed heartily on hearing the farmer’s words. “How can a fish be found in the field?” They said, and went their way. As soon as they had gone, his wife took out the cooked fish and began eating it.
The farmer shouted: “See folks! She is eating the fish, and would not give me any of it!” The people of the village came back running, but by the time they reached the woman had hidden the fish.
She said: “Look he beats me, and asks me to produce the fish. Oh! what shall I do?” Saying this she began to weep aloud. The farmer kept on insisting: “I had brought the fish from the field. She cooked it in front of me and was just now eating it.”
The villagers who had gathered there were convinced that he was possessed by a ghost. They began to drive it out. They beat him soundly with shoes. They burnt chillies near his nose and when he could not stand the fumes and ran they caught him and tied him to a pillar and did not heed his protests!
In the night his wife freed him and gave him a portion of the fish and puries, and said: “This is just one trick I have played on you. Now consider what your state will be if I let loose a thousand cart-loads of tricks!”
The farmer accepted the defeat and kept quiet.