Tenali Raman and the Thousand Gold Coins

In a bustling market town, a very wealthy but overly greedy merchant lost a leather purse heavily laden with exactly one thousand gold coins. Desperate to get it back, he publicly announced a generous reward of one hundred gold coins to whoever found it.

Across town, an honest, poor farmer stumbled upon the heavy purse lying in the dust. Opening it, he found the thousand gold coins and recognized it as the missing purse. Because he was a good man, he immediately brought it directly to the merchant.

Instead of happily paying the hundred-coin reward, the dishonest merchant hatched a nasty plan. He counted the thousand coins and scowled heavily at the farmer.

“My purse originally contained eleven hundred coins!” the merchant lied loudly. “You have clearly already taken your hundred coins as your reward. Be gone!”

The poor farmer, outraged by this terrible accusation, took the matter directly to King Krishnadevaraya’s royal court. The King, knowing this was a tricky situation, asked Tenali Raman to solve the devastating dispute.

Tenali Raman stepped forward and asked the merchant simply, “Are you absolutely, positively certain your missing purse had eleven hundred coins inside?”

“Yes, absolutely!” lied the merchant quickly.

Tenali Raman smiled broadly and turned to the King. “Your Majesty, the matter is quite simple. Since the merchant’s lost purse had eleven hundred coins, this specific purse containing only one thousand coins cannot possibly belong to him!”

Tenali handed the entire heavy purse of gold to the stunned but honest farmer. “You may keep this lost purse until its rightful owner comes looking for roughly one thousand coins.”

The dishonest merchant watched in utter horror as all his gold was given away because of his own awful lie.

Moral of the Story: A smart mind can defeat unfair tricks. A dishonest person’s own lies will eventually trap them, rewarding the innocent.