Long long ago， there was a king. He was very niggardly. Not even a single paisa could be drawn from his treasury. He had a son and a daughter of marriageable age， but did not want to spend money on their marriages. Thus， it did not seem possible that his children would ever get married.

　　The niggardly nature of the king was well known to the kings of the neighboring States. Hence they were not prepared to establish relation with the king.

　　The family of the king including the queen， his son， his daughter and the courtiers were very unhappy with the king. The queen many a time reminded the king that their daughter was of marriageable age and that it was not proper to delay her marriage any further. The king would hear her but would give no response.

　　Time passed on. Once some acrobats， known as nats， came to the capital and performed their acrobatics before the king. People applauded the performance but the king， showed no reaction. The nats noticed the apathy of the king and hatched a plan. They wanted appreciation and reward from the king.

　　They tried many tricks to elicit applause from the king but all in vain. At midnight， the male performer began to lose his patience. Despair was writ large on his face. His female partner noticed it and by singing a few lines of a song， advised him to keep up courage.

　　RAT GHARY RE BHARGA YI KIS PINJARE ME AAY KAHE NATI SUN O PIYA MITHA TAL BAJAY

　　“Play on， my love till night does end And don't you feel disheartened. Morning light will set things right Though all is dark at present.”

　　The male got the hint and kept up his performance with more rigour feeling that the spirits of this female partner may not sag， he also sang a few lines of the song to boost her up.

　　GHANI GA YI THORI RAHI THORI BHI DOO JAY MAKHANAR SUN NAYIKA TAL ANG NAYI LAAY“Most of the night has already passed And all that's left will not stay. Yes， my dear， just listen to me And dance to the tune that I play.”

　　The song was so sweet and spontaneous that the audience was overwhelmed. It started throwing out money towards the performers. The prince was also very much pleased. He gave his precious diamonds to the performers. The princess，' too felt moved and gave her precious diamonds to the performers.

　　When the kin noticed that his son and daughter had parted with such precious things， he got upset and retired to his room.

　　Later he called his son and daughter and told them that he hadn't earned money for the people whom they had given. He said they， his son and daughter， had no knowledge of the value of diamonds and that they had wasted them by giving them away to the nats.

　　The prince told the king that he had given the precious stones to the performers because they had opened his eyes. He had a plan to kill his father-the king， because of his parsimonious nature. But the performers through their songs， advised him patience as the king was very old and would soon die a natural death. They， thus， saved him from committing a sin. It was for this reason that he gave them the diamond.

　　The king was taken aback at the answer of the prince.

　　He， then， asked the princess as to why she gave the ring to the performers. The princess said that she was over 25 years old and hat her marriage was nowhere in sight.

　　She had fallen in love with the son of the king's minister and had a plan to flee with him. But the advice of the performers stopped her in the midst as they said that her father was very old and would not survive for long. If she took action according to her plans， her father would very sad and would not die peacefully. Thus， the song of the performers inspired her to give up her plans and hence the reward of the ring.

　　The king was silently listening to what his daughter said. He was quick to realize that money would not go with him when he would die. He could also see that but for the advice of the performers， he could be unhappy and could have been killed. All this went round his mind the whole night and he could not sleep.

　　Next morning， he ordered for his Darbar and in the court declared that soon the prince would be made king and that his daughter's marriage would be arranged in keeping with the mahurat. He called the nats and rewarded them handsomely.

　　Then after making his son king and getting his daughter married， the king left the palace and started his life as a recluse and went on a pilgrimage.

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