Page:The Orient Pearls.djvu/29



upon a time there was a pious King in Hindustan, beloved of his subjects, as much for his unstinted liberality to all and sundry as for his just and impartial rule.

He was very fond of holy men, and delighted in their company, and always showered his choicest gifts upon them.

One day a rascal, who pretended that he was a holy man, came to the King and thus said to him: "O Prince! I have lived a recluse in my cell all my life, only now and then stirring out into the great world to visit ancient shrines and places of pilgrimage by the sacred rivers. I feel supremely curious to know what a three days' change in my dull, joyless, ascetic life would feel like. So do thou, O Prince! let me rule over thy kingdom just for three days in thy place."

The King, who never denied aught to any holy men, agreed to this, and with his Queen and his two little sons left his State on a three days' holiday..

The "holy" man now took off his yellow garb, and, putting on his back the gorgeous dress of a Prince, sat on the throne with a golden crown on his head and a jewelled sceptre in his hand, and thus began his three days' reign.