{"id":243,"date":"2020-02-02T17:55:04","date_gmt":"2020-02-02T17:55:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chandamama.in\/story\/?p=243"},"modified":"2022-02-02T22:57:36","modified_gmt":"2022-02-02T22:57:36","slug":"the-kings-handkerchiefs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chandamama.in\/story\/2020\/02\/02\/the-kings-handkerchiefs\/","title":{"rendered":"The king\u2019s handkerchiefs"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>\n

The king\u2019s handkerchiefs<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Once there was a king who loved to go hunting. He always went hunting\n in disguise. One day, after a long day\u2019s hunting, the king lost his \nway. He moved into that part of the jungle which was part of another \nkingdom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wandering here and there, he soon felt very thirsty. So be searched \nfor a well or a pond to quench his thirst. After a long search, he came \nupon a spring. As he was taking a sip of water, he heard some loud \nlaughter. He looked around for the source of the voices and
\nsaw some girls bathing in the river. Among them was a very beautiful girl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few questions revealed that she was a princess of another kingdom. \nThe king, however, did not reveal his identity to the princess and her \nfriends. When they came out of the water, he expressed his desire to \nmarry the princess. She shyly replied, \u201cYou must speak to my father. \nOnly he can decide what\u2019s good for me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the king reached her kingdom and approached her father. \u201cI would \nlike to marry your daughter,\u201d he told the old king. The father did not \nenquire about this suitor to his daughter\u2019s hand.  He only wanted to \nknow how he could earn his livelihood. \u201cI can do good drawing and \nneedlework,\u201d said the king. The old.king was satisfied. Soon the \nprincess and the king in disguise. were married. They returned to the \nking\u2019s palace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another day when the king went hunting, he stopped by at a village, \nwhich was being looted by a gang of dacoits. The dacoits did not \nrecognize the king, who was in disguise. They took him hostage and made \naway with him to their den in the forest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The king protested that he had no wealth to give them, but the \ndacoits were not convinced. A week passed. The dacoits fed and took care\n of the king, although he insisted that he had no wealth to give away. \nAt last the king suggested to the dacoits, \u201dGet me some plain \nhandkerchiefs and I\u2019ll embroider them. You may sell them in the palace. \nThe queen is very fond of embroidered handkerchiefs and will surely buy \nthem. You can keep the money that you make out of the sale.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dacoits agreed. They looted all the cloth stores in the kingdom \nand brought many handkerchiefs for the king. He patiently embroidered \nthem with floral designs and also included some words in the patterns. \nThe illiterate dacoits could not make out the words and they thought \nthey, too, were part of the patterns. They took the kerchiefs for sale \nto the queen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As soon as she saw them, she recognized her husband\u2019s handiwork. She also understood that her husband was trying to convey a message. She bought all the kerchiefs and by piecing the messages all together, she understood what had happened to him. She instructed her soldiers and at night, they found their way to the dacoits\u2019 den and freed their king. The dacoits were caught.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Author: Sailabala Mohanty, Orissa  <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reading Time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>The king\u2019s handkerchiefs Once there was a king who loved to go hunting. He always went hunting in disguise. One day, after a long day\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[9,13],"class_list":["post-243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english","tag-chandamama","tag-english"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chandamama.in\/story\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chandamama.in\/story\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chandamama.in\/story\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chandamama.in\/story\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chandamama.in\/story\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.chandamama.in\/story\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5540,"href":"https:\/\/www.chandamama.in\/story\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243\/revisions\/5540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chandamama.in\/story\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chandamama.in\/story\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chandamama.in\/story\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}