Folk tales of Sri Lanka - 2

The Goat and the Pot (Mahadena-mutta)

Book 1 introduces all the main characters of Mahadena-mutta stories. Book 3 How Mahadena-mutta went in search of more pupils.

Simplified and retold for children by

Sumedha Manabarana
www.gallesrilankatours.com

Sri Lanka has a lot of interesting stories. Some are very funny. One such story is The Stories of Mahadena-mutta. There are lots of them.

Mahadena-mutta was an old man. He lived in a far away village of Sri Lanka. Mahadena-mutta thought he knew everything. He thought he was very wise.

Mahadena-mutta had five pupils. His five pupils were

Indikatu-pancha Polbe-moona Kotu-kitaiya Puwak-badilla, and Rabboda-aiya.

(The needle-like kid or pupil) (The pupil whose face looked like half a coconut, round and flat) (The stick-like pupil) (The areca nut-like pupil or the beetle nut like pupil) (The matured junior pupil) (The well grown pupil)

Whenever there was a problem in the village, Mahadenamutta was sure to be there with his pupils. The people in the village always came to Mahadena-mutta for good advice.

Mahadena-mutta had a big book of advice with him. He pretended he had a solution for any problem. One of his pupils would always carry his book of advice with much respect. Sometimes, when Mahadena-mutta got a new idea, he always told his pupils to write it down in their note books.

However, most of the time, the advice given by Mahadenamutta was absurd or foolish.

One day, there was a problem in the village. One farmer had a goat. The goat wanted to drink some water. The goat found a pot of water in the farmers kitchen.

The goat put his head into the pot. After drinking water, the goat could not take his head out of the pot. The goat jumped up and down, but the pot did not come off the head.

The farmer heard the noise of the goat. He jumped here and there, but he could not take the pot. Then he ran to meet Mahadena-mutta. He came with his five pupils to the scene.

Mahadena-mutta ordered one of his pupils to open the book. He told the pupil a page number. Then he asked the pupil to read the instructions in the page.

After reading, Mahadena-mutta told the farmer to bring a big knife. He told the farmer to cut the neck of the goat very carefully. After cutting the neck of the goat, you could crush the pot and take the head out, OK?

Mahadena-mutta and his five pupils went away thanking themselves for helping a poor farmer to get rid of a difficult problem!
There are people who think that they are experts in giving advice. However popular they are, there is also a possibility of these people giving you absurd instructions. In doing so, they may put you into more trouble in the end. Also, there are enough people in this society who would blindly follow these instructions.

Retold by Sumedha Manabarana