Retold by Amal HEWAVISSENTI

In Thailand, there was once an affluent lady who had long been divorced from her husband for the reason that she was stubbornly refusing to change her mind at crucial matters and was hard to deal with. She most often had her own logic and reasoning based on her own arbitrary thinking and was unwilling to regard favourably the others' opinions.

One day she wanted her portrait painted by a reputed artist in a way that the portrait were to appear her own self with a superb finish. A highly estimable artist took on himself the responsibility of painting the portrait and the lady promised him a staggering amount of money as a reward on completion of it.

The artist worked relentlessly on the drawing for many days and ultimately he completed it with a resplendent finish. The portrait displayed a life-like image of the lady and showed the exquisite workmanship of the artist. The lady viewed the portrait from many angles and seemed dissatisfied with the work. She was by no means trained with deep artistic taste or she had no relish for art work.

The lady had a pet dog whom she loved more than her own life and whom she believed to be the cleverest and most intelligent dog in the world. She brought the dog in to the artist's studio and showed it the portrait. Surprisingly enough, the dog exhibited no interest at all in the drawing but just looked on the frame of the portrait and the articles lying scattered in the studio. Then she turned to the artist and said "What do you think I am? Do you think that I'm going to pay you just because you have drawn a mere picture of a lady? I don't really want this picture. It doesn't have any resemblance to my real appearance. Have you got any idea why I'm talking like this?"

The artist was absolutely nonplussed by this sudden declaration by the lady and was depressed at the undervaluing of the portrait which he had taken immense trouble to complete. The lady here exposed her so called "logical thinking" and came out with a rash conclusion of the value of the portrait. "See! This drawing doesn't look like me at all. Even my intelligent dog can't recognise me in the picture. If he really did, he would have wagged its tail at the picture. Don't try to fool me. I' won't pay for this!"

The artist was a hard-nosed man of worldly understanding who was better aware of the eccentric ways of thinking and habits of wealthy people. Without giving counter arguments to what the lady said, he humbly remarked "Madam, I took much pains to create this portrait. However, it hasn't been successful.

I'll add some more details to the painting. Visit my studio tomorrow. I'll make the depiction so life-like that your beloved dog will wag its tail and even lick it!"

The following day the lady visited the artist's studio again with her pet dog. No sooner did the dog see the portrait than it wagged its tail earnestly and hurried to the portrait. The rich lady was struck with wonder when she saw the dog licking her portrait with great enthusiasm.

She ecstatically called out, "What an amazing picture this is! I see my real self in the portrait. My dog loves it very much and so I too like it. The dog is licking the picture mistaking it to be my own face. Prepare this for me to take home."

The lady had hurt the artist's pride of being an artist and he decided to demand an exorbitant price for the painting which the lady paid after much bargaining. The artist laughed at her back. What he really had done was to rub the whole portrait with a juicy piece of meat and its appetizing smell had made the dog lick it!

There was another richman in the same city who used to travel around the world and remained away from his house most of the time. Once he was back at home after an excursion he would talk to the younger people in the city and would recount the exciting experiences he had during his wandering life. Often he would treat them with disdain and ask them questions like, "Did you ever see the leaning Tower of Pisa?" " Did you ever see the mummies in pyramids?" "Did you ever see the Eiffel Tower of Paris?" "Have you ever seen the Taj Mahal in India?" and so on. For each question, the answer from the crowd was" No" and the man, with a sarcastic smile said, "you foolish guys always stay at home. What is the use of it?

You're missing the real fascination of life". The young men in the town had to be in utter humiliation by these satirical comments by the traveller who would vanish from the town on a cruise to another country the following day itself.

One day, while the rich man was giving an account of his most recent foreign tour, the young people asked him, "Uncle, have you ever visited the junk shop in our city? Come, let's see the most beautiful things that are there on display" The rich man agreed and they visited the junk shop in the afternoon. When they were surveying the articles in the junk shop, the rich man suddenly detected many valuable articles which had been inherited by him from his father. He further observed that the articles had long been missing from his house. The man frenziedly shouted, " How the hell, are my priceless articles here? Who brought these here"? The youngman wittily retorted, "While you're away some people have sold these articles to this shop. You hardly remain at home. So you're losing the hard-earned wealth of your father". The richman was bereft of speech, and went off.

What follows is another jocular tale from Thai folklore. A hungry traveller who had not had food for three days landed up a small village where he managed to establish a friendship with some of the people. His hunger had made him think of a crafty plan to get the best food from the villagers and he personally visited the village headman's house. He said to the headman, "I'm from Vietnam. I have a sound knowledge of medicinal herbs' with superb powers." Then he whispered to the headman's ear "I know a plant which can give life back to a man who is nearing his own grave. I would like to disclose this secret to you" The village headman was so enthralled by this revelation that he unhesitatingly arranged a grand dinner for the stranger and fed him with the choicest food which the stranger had never even tasted. After the meal the headman reminded the man of his promise of the strange plant and implored the man to show him the place where it grew. "Come with me. The plant is pretty nearby", said the stranger. They secretly left the house and began to scamper along the path until they were considerably farther from the village. Suddenly the crafty stranger pointed to a paddy field and said "Here grows that life giving plant. This is the plant". The stranger uprooted a paddy plant and held it for the head man to see. The headman bewildered, asked the stranger, "Are you joking? This is just a paddy plant. How can a paddy plant have such a great power?"

"Why not? It is not a joke. Had it not been for the rice you gave me, I would already have been dead!" Before the headman could think of anything to say, the crafty stranger was seen taking to his heels.