Once in the city ruled by Krishna Deva Raya, there came an epidemic due to rats. The situation was similar to the case of "Pied Piper of Hamelin". Rats were everywhere. They were eating all the books belonging to children. They started making holes in wooden shelves. Sometimes they even nibbled the ears of little girls. But there was no Pied Piper to save the city.
Unfortunately, there were so many rats in the city but very few cats. So the king asked every house in the city to grow cats. But cats need milk to drink. Most of the houses did not have cows. So the king gave cows to every house and asked them to grow them too. All people were happy and used to give the cats a lot of milk to drink.
Except one - Tenali Raman.
He was not only a lazy man, but also greedy enough to sell all the milk. Hence, the first day he boiled the milk and poured it in a pan. He gave the piping hot milk to the cat. The cat, which was hungry came and sipped the milk from the pan. Since the milk was hot it burnt its mouth. The cat ran away. The next day and the next Tenali Raman did the same thing. After a few days he stopped giving milk to the cat and started selling it off.
Tenali Raman's cat was lean and hungry and all other cats were stout and happy. One day the king wanted to see all the cats given by him and give prize to the best maintained cat. He was wild with Tenali Raman for not taking care of his cat properly. He asked him to explain the reason.
Then Tenali Raman told the king that he was not to be blamed, since his cat did not drink any milk. The king wanted to put Tenali Raman in Jail for telling a lie and wanted him to prove what he said.
Then Tenali Raman asked the King to give milk to the cat all by himself, as he did not believe Tenali's words. The king brought a nice small bowl of milk and kept it in front of the cat. On seeing the milk, the cat immediately started screaming and screeching and ran away. The king pitied Tenali Raman and not only let him away, but also gave him another cat and an extra cow to give milk for the new cat!
The clever Tenali Raman lived happily forever after!
Happy reading!
Uncle N
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