A traveler who used to visit nearby villages for business took shelter near a hut when it started raining heavily. He had his donkey with him to carry his belongings. All of a sudden, an old woman came out of the hut and asked the traveler to come inside the hut.
“You can come inside and stay until it stops raining,” the old woman said.
“Thanks a lot, it is so nice of you,” traveler answered.
He went inside the hut. The old woman asked her daughter to bring something to eat. The traveler was hungry. He ate to his heart’s content. The old woman fed the donkey too.
As he prepared to leave, he asked the old woman, “Who is that beautiful girl. Is she your daughter?”
“Yes, she is my only daughter” she answered.
“I have a younger brother who is highly educated and wise. I wonder if your daughter would like to marry him,” the traveler said.
“Oh yes, why not, I know my daughter but I have one condition. I will come along with my daughter as I have no one else in my family.” The old woman said as she was happy at the thought of her daughter getting married.
He agreed. The duo were married after a few months, and the old woman started living with her daughter and her son-in-law in the nearby village.
Ever since the beautiful girl of that old woman stepped into the house, the family started getting prosperous. They had money, a lot of grain and even some gold in their house. Months later, when the traveler came home after another business trip, he was happier than he had ever been. The newlywed couple was happy with each other.
A few days later traveler went to some other village for business.
When he came back after two months, he was shocked to see that family had lost almost everything to flood and his brother’s wife had gone somewhere else with her mother. He went to his brother and asked, “What happened? Why did you let your wife leave?”
“She was a witch, a rat woman actually. Villagers were talking bad about her so I had to let her go,” the brother answered and started crying.
Traveler felt bad but he could not really do anything about it. A few days later when he went to visit a friend in nearby village, he heard of a girl who resembled his brother’s wife. He went there to look for her and found her living in a dilapidated hut. She was the same girl, his brother’s wife. Her mother had died of a terrible disease and she was all alone in the world. The traveler somehow convinced her and brought her back to his brother.
When they reached back home he asked her brother to keep an eye on his wife and the brother agreed to do so.
Quite surprisingly, everything changed all of a sudden. The day she stepped into their house, the family got prosperous again and everyone was happy.
One night when the couple was sleeping in their room something strange happened. As suggested by the traveler, his brother woke up in the middle of the night and was shocked to see that his wife was nowhere in the house. When he passed by the storeroom where they used to keep grain, he heard some noises.
Peeping through the keyhole, he saw his wife turning into a big rat, which was collecting grain. He took no time to understand the reason behind their prosperity but he was not angry. He went back to his room and slept off.
Early morning his wife brought a cup of tea for him. He looked at her as if nothing happened. He knew she was a rat woman but that did not make a difference any more. He loved his wife regardless.
There are no conditions in true love. When you love someone, you must love him/her for his/her true self.
