Sanjay Prasad Paudel
Once there was a very rich king. He was very greedy. The royal palace was consisted of luxurious items fitted for the king’s bastion. But he was not satisfied with his sumptuous life. Driven by insatiable greed, he was always obsessed with the desire of collecting much more gold in the store and flaunting it as a sign of his grandeur, power and prestige.
He was least concerned with people’s problems that they brought to the king. Looking worried king one day, a deity entered into his room and asked him, “O king! Why are you so anxious? What do you want? Ask with me and I would offer you a divine blessing that fulfills your desires.”
The king was very happy. He said: “Whatever things I touch may change into gold.” “Okay! Whatever things you touch with will change into gold”, said the divine man.
He continued on, “But there is a condition that his wish will come true only when the sun rises tomorrow.” Now, the divine man disappeared from the palace. The king was in dilemma whether his encounter with the godly figure is real or illusion. He thought about either he is in dream or aware of the surrounding. He was so restless that he spent his night waiting for the day and could not sleep well.
The day broke, birds started chirping and the sun rose. The king touched his bed as soon as he saw the rising sun. The bed turned into gold to his great delight. He touched everything that he could and all things became gold immediately. Excited, he came out of his palace and looked at his beautiful garden. He grew a desire to change it into gold. He touched all the trees, saplings and even stones, and sand, which also turned into gold. He was elated over the transformation of everything he taps.
After a few moments, he got tired of touching the things and turning them into gold. He entered into his room being thirsty. He wanted to drink water. When he was about to drink water the glass of water turned into gold. Now the king became worried. He was aware of the curse of the blessing.
In the meantime, his daughter entered the room looking for him. She wanted a hug with him. “Where have you been? I have been looking for you for moments,” she said. The king said, “It is okay! It is okay! Don’t come near me. Please, do not touch me.” But the poor girl knew nothing about the blessing the king got from a divine figure.
The poor girl turned into image of gold as soon as he could not complete his words. He began to cry looking at the image of gold of his daughter. The poor king finally realized that his avarice led to this situation. He learnt that there also lies curse in the blessing.
