The Man who went to seek his fate

Once there was a very poor man who had a wife and twelve children, and
not a single rupee. The poor children used to cry with hunger, and the
man and his wife did not know what to do. At last he got furious with
God and said, "How wicked God is! He gives me a great many children,
but no money." So he set out to find his fate. In the jungle he met a
camel with two heavy sacks of gold on its back. This camel belonged to
a Raja, and once it was travelling with other camels and with the
Raja's servants to another country, and carrying the sacks of gold.
Every night they encamped and started again early in the morning; but
one morning the servants forgot to take this camel with them, and the
camel forgot the road home, and the sacks were too tightly strapped
for it to get rid of them. So it wandered about the jungle with the
sacks on its back for twelve years. The camel asked the poor man where
he was going. "I am going to seek my fate, to ask it why I am so
poor," he answered. The camel said, "Ask it, too, why for twelve years
I have had to carry these two sacks of gold. All this time I have not
been able to lie down, or to eat, or to drink." "Very well," said the
man, and he went on.

Then he came to a river in which he saw an alligator. The alligator
took him across, and when he got to the other side it asked him where
he was going. The man said, "I am going to seek my fate, to ask it
why I am so poor." "Then," said the alligator, "ask it also why for
twelve years I have a great burning in my stomach." "I will," said the
man.

Then he went on and on till he came to a tiger, who was lying on the
ground with a great thorn sticking in his foot. This tiger had gone
out one day to hunt for food, and not looking where he was going, he
put his foot on the thorn, and the thorn ran into his foot. And so God
grew very angry and said, "Because you are such a careless, stupid
fellow, and don't look where you are going, for twelve years this
thorn shall remain in your foot." "Where are you going?" the tiger
asked the man. "I am going to seek my fate, to ask it why I am so
poor. Some one told me that my fate was far, far away, a twelve years'
journey from my own country, and that it was lying down, and that I
must take a thick stick and beat it with all my might." "Ask it, too,"
said the tiger, "why for twelve years I have had this thorn in my foot
and cannot get it out, though I have tried hard to do so." "Yes, I
will," said the man.

Then he came to the place where every one's fate lives. The fates are
stones, some standing and others lying on the ground. "This must be
mine," he said; "it is lying on the ground, that's why I am so poor."
So he took the thick stick he had in his hand, and beat it, and beat
it, and beat it, but still it would not stir. As night was approaching
he left off beating it, and God sent a soul into the poor man's fate,
and it became a man, who stood looking at the poor man and said, "Why
have you beaten me so much?" "Because you were lying down, and I am
very poor, and at home my wife and my children are starving." "Oh,
things will go well with you now," said the fate, and the man was
satisfied. He said to his fate, "While coming here I met a camel who
for twelve years has had to wander about with two heavy sacks of gold
on its back, and it wants to know why it must carry them." "Oh," said
the fate, "just take the sacks off its back and then it will be free."
"I will," said the poor man. "Then I met an alligator who for twelve
years has had a great burning in its stomach." The fate said, "In its
stomach is a very large ruby, as big as your hand. If the alligator
will only throw up the ruby, it will be quite well." "Next I met a
tiger who has had for twelve years a great thorn in his foot which he
cannot take out." "Pull it out with your teeth," said the fate; and
then God withdrew the soul, and the fate became a stone again which
stood up on the ground.

Then the man set out on his journey home, and he came to the tiger.
"What did your fate say?" said the tiger. "Give me your foot and I
will take out the thorn," said the poor man. The tiger stretched out
the foot with the thorn in it, and the man pulled out the thorn with
his teeth. It was a very large thorn, as big as the man's hand. The
tiger felt grateful to the poor man, and as he was very rich, for he
had eaten a great many Rajas and people, and had all their money, he
said to the man, "I will give you some gold in return for your
kindness." "You have no money," said the man. "I have," said the
tiger, and he went into his den, and the poor man followed. "Give me
your cloth," said the tiger. The man laid it on the ground. Then the
tiger took quantities of gold and jewels and filled the cloth with
them. And the poor man took up his cloth, thanked the tiger, and went
his way. Then he met the alligator who took him across the river. The
alligator said, "Did you ask your fate why there is such burning in my
stomach?" "I did," said the man. "It is because you have a very large
ruby in your stomach. If you will only throw it up, you will be quite
well." Then the alligator threw the ruby up out of its mouth, and that
very instant the burning in its stomach ceased. "Ah," said the
alligator, looking at the ruby, "I swallowed that one day when I was
drinking." And he gave the ruby to the man, saying, "In return for
your kindness I will give you this ruby. It is a very precious stone."
(In old days every Raja possessed such a ruby; now very few Rajas, if
any, have one.) The poor man thanked the alligator, put the ruby into
his cloth, and went on his way till he came to the camel, who said,
"Did you ask your fate why I have to carry these two sacks of gold?"
"I did," said the man, and he took the sacks off the camel's back. How
happy and grateful the camel felt! "How kind of you," he said to the
man, "to take the sacks off. Now I can eat, now I can drink, and now I
can lie down. Because you have been so kind to me, I give you the two
sacks of gold, and I will carry them and your bundle home to your
house for you, and then I will come back and live here in the jungle."
Then the poor man put the two sacks of gold and his bundle on the
camel, who carried them to his house. When he got there, he took the
sacks and his bundle off the camel, who thanked him again for his
kindness and went back to his jungle, feeling very glad at having got
rid of his heavy burthen.

When the poor man's wife and children saw the gold and jewels and the
ruby, they cried, "Where did you get these?" And the man told them his
whole story. And he bought food for his wife and children, and gave
them a beautiful house, and got them clothes, for now he was very
rich.

Another poor man who was not quite, but nearly, as poor as this man
had been, asked him where he had got his riches. "I got them out of a
river," answered the man. "I drew the water with a bucket, and in
every bucketful there was gold." The other man started off to the
river and began drawing up water in a bucket. "Stop, stop!" cried an
alligator, who was the king of the fishes; "you are taking all the
water out of the river and my fishes will die." "I want money," said
the man, "and I can find none, so I am taking the water out of the
river in order to get some." "You shall have some in a minute," said
the alligator, "only do stop drawing the water." Then a great wave of
water dashed on to the land and dashed back into the river, leaving
behind it a great heap of gold, which the man picked up joyfully. The
next day he came again, and night and day he drew water out of the
river. At last the alligator got very angry, and said, "My fishes will
all die for want of water. Once I gave the man a heap of gold, and yet
he wants more. I won't give him any," and the alligator thrust up his
head out of the river, and swallowed the man whole. For four days and
four nights the man lived in the alligator's stomach. At the end of
the fourth night the king of the fishes said to him, "I will let you
get out of my stomach on condition that you tell no man what has
happened to you. If you do, you will die instantly." The man jumped
out of the alligator's mouth and walked towards his house. On his way
he met some men and told them what had happened to him, and as soon as
he got home he told his wife and children, and the moment he had done
so he became mad and dumb and blood came out of his mouth, and he fell
down dead.