vetal story.

Who is the real father?

Vikram captured Betal and started walking and Betal started a fresh story. The story was of a widow named Bhagwati and her young daughter Dhanwati who were wandering town to town. One night, while they were passing through a lane, Dhanwati felt very thirsty. They saw a man tied with chains and a soldier was sitting under the tree. Bhagwati went and asked him if he had some water to drink. The soldier replied that in the corner of the lane was lying a pot full of water. At this, the man who was chained asked her to get some water for him too. Bhagwati asked the soldier why the man was tied up. He said that he was a famous thief and he was to be hanged in the morning. Bhagwati got water for him and asked Dhanwati to give it to him. Just after Dhanwati gave him water, the thief asked Bhagwati if her daughter was married. When she said she was unmarried, he proposed to her for marriage. Bhagwati was shocked at the thought of getting her daughter married to a thief, that too when he was to be hanged in a day, as her daughter would be married just for a night. The thief then informed them that all through out his life, he had gathered wealth by stealing and he had lots of money but it was of no use for him as he was to die the next day, but if Dhanwati would marry him she would get all his wealth after his death and he would get salvation as she would give birth to his son. His son would do Pinddaan (oblation of cooked rice for manes) there by getting him salvation and his soul would not be devious.
Bhagwati agreed and so Dhanwati and the thief were married. Next day the thief was hanged. Before his death, he told Bhagwati about the secret place where he had hidden his wealth. Bhagwati went to that place and dug out the wealth and soon they became rich. Once a few ladies suggested Bhagwati to get Dhanwati married. Bhagwati expressed her wish that she wanted a son-in-law who would stay in her house after the marriage. One day, a Brahmin came to Bhagwati’s house. Bhagwati proposed him to get married to Dhanwati but he was actually a thief. Looking at how rich Bhagwati was, he immediately got ready to marry her. On the first night he stole all the jewelry from the house and ran away because of which Bhagwati died of shock. Later, Dhanwati gave birth to a son. She had become very poor and used to earn her living by begging. Days passed by and her son became young. One day, while they were roaming they saw a python entangled around a prince’s neck under a tree. The prince was struggling to get rid of the python. As soon as Dhanwati’s son saw this, he ran and tried his level best to save him. Meanwhile the King came there and saw him striving hard to help him. He succeeded in removing the python but could not save the Prince. Later, the King called both Dhanwati and her son to his court and pleased with his valour, told Dhanwati that he would like to adopt her son in place of the Prince.
He lived like a prince and learnt all the arts that were needed to be learnt by a prince. He also considered the King as his father. One day, the King fell sick and called for the prince and offered him the crown after his death. The King died. Later, Dhanwati asked her son to do Pinddaan. When they went to the river for the Pinddaan, three hands came out to take the pind. Of these, one hand was of the thief who had married Dhanwati for a night, second one was of the man who had married her for her wealth and the third one was of the King who had adopted him as his son.
Saying this, Betaal stopped and asked Vikram as to who should the son give the pind to and who was his real father. He forced Vikram to reply or else he would behead him. Vikram replied that the thief was his real father because he gave away the entire earnings of his life and enjoyed the marital life just for one night, the second man married her for her wealth and the King adopted him as there was no one to look after the kingdom. Betaal was very happy to hear this but as per his condition, as Vikram opened his mouth, Betaal flew away……….