(Excerpted from "Free as a Slave" by Winkie Pratney)
In India a man who was a beggar had been begging all day. he had only collected a small bowl of rice. he was about to pack up for the day because it was getting late, getting cold. And he saw in the distance an elephant caravan, and he realized it was the raja, the prince of the province, who was going to be in this elephant caravan. And he was making a rare visit right past where the beggar was. So the beggar wondered, "Maybe I could just call out, maybe just shout or something, and he would throw me a coin or something."
So he positioned himself on the road and finally this beautiful elephant caravan came past. And he got right to where the main elephant was and he cried out, "Raja, mighty raja! Have pity on one of your poor servants!"
There was a shouted command in Hindustani from the back of the elephant and the whole caravan stopped. And then a ladder came down the side of the elephant and the prince came down the side of the ladder. And he came right across to where the beggar sat and groveled in the dust.
And the prince said, "Beggarman, look at me." And very slowly his eyes came up. And the prince said, "Beggarman," looking in his bowl, "will you give me some of your rice?"
The beggarman couldn't believe it, and into the prince's outstretched hand he counted: one, two, three grains of rice.
The prince held his eyes for the longest time and said, "Thank you." Then he turned and climbed back up the rope ladder on the back of the elephant, and with the shout of the command the caravan moved on.
The beggarman began to weep, his eyes full of tears. He watched the caravan go on in the distance. He says, "He asked me... the prince wanted something from me..." Through his tears he looked down into his beggar bowl. There among the grains of rice he saw - to his shock, to his dismay - one, two, three grains of gold shinging among the rice.
You could hear his cry all over India, "Oh prince if I would have only known, I would have given you everything."
3 comments:
This is such a great story!!! I love it and I love you!
You know that I love this story. So glad that you shared it with the rest of the world that you interact with. Yes, giving it ALL....you have learned so much in your young life. I love what I see. Love YOU!!
oooohhh...good story. We do a story with the 4th graders called "One Grain of Rice" and this one would go great with that unit. I'll have to remember it.
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