The Woodman’s riddle

One day the king was out riding his horse when he met a woodman.

"How are things going?" asked the king. "Do you enjoy your work? Do you earn enough money?"

'I am doing very well, thank you," answered the woodman. "In fact, I even have some money left over at the end of each month."

"I'm very glad to hear that. What do you do with your money?"

"I pay for our food, our clothing and our rent. Then I divide the extra money into four parts. The first part goes to pay my debts. The second part I throw into the river. I bury the third part in the ground, and I give the fourth part to my enemy."

The king was amazed!. "What can this mean?" he asked. "You are talking in riddles."'

"I owe my life to my parents. This is my debt. The money I spend on drinking and gambling is the money that I throw into the river. The money I give to the temple is the money that I bury in the ground. My wife is my enemy."

"That's an excellent riddle," said the king. "But I think you should treat your wife as your friend, not as an enemy. After all, where would we be without women? They are our mothers, our sisters and our wives. We should trust them."

"Perhaps you are right, sire," said the woodman.

"Someday you'll see how right I am. Now, about your riddle. I think it's a very good riddle indeed. Can I have it?"

The woodman gave the king his riddle. After the king had written down every word, he called the woodman's wife. She heard her husband promise never to tell anyone the answer to the riddle.

Several weeks later the king announced a contest. He said he would give a bag of gold to anyone who could find the an­swer to this riddle. The woodman's wife remembered that her husband had given it to the king. She begged him to tell her the answer. When at last he told her, she went to see the king. The king listened as she gave the correct answer to the riddle.

"You are a very clever woman," he said as he gave her the bag of gold. "But haven't I seen you somewhere before?"

The woodman's wife replied that she had never seen the king before that day. But the king wasn't fooled. He sent for the woodman.

"You have broken your promise. You told your wife the an­swer to the riddle. Any man who breaks a promise to the king must die." The king called his guards to take the poor woodman away.

"Excuse me, Your Majesty," said the woodman, "But you told me I should trust my wife. Now you can see that I was right. She is my enemy after all."

The king began to smile. Then he began to laugh. He sent the guards away and said, "Woodman, you have taught me a useful lesson. As you see even a king can make mistakes. Go home now. I hope your wife will share her gold with you."

The woodman went home, but he never asked his wife about the gold.

The Glass Diamond

Nai Chamnan was a famous jeweller in Bangkok. He knew the value of every jewel. He sold many diamonds, rubies, sapphires, and emeralds.

Now also living in Bangkok at that time was a man called Krua Dee. Krua Dee was very clever. He made money by fooling other people. Oddly enough, Nai Chamnan and Krua Dee had been friends when they were boys. And they still saw each other from time to time.

One day Krua Dee found a glass bottle stopper He carefully cut and polished the stopper. Soon it glittered in the sunlight. Then Krua Dee went to Nai Chamnan's shop.

"I have a jewel here that I want to sell," he said to Nai Chamnan. "My mother gave it to me, and I want to sell it for a thousand baht."

Nai Chamnan looked at the 'jewel'. "Fool!" he said. 'This is just an old bottle stopper. Nobody would buy it. I wouldn't pay you even one baht for it."

Krua Dee looked very unhappy when he heard this. He looked so unhappy that Nai Chamnan said he would do his best to sell the glass bottle stopper.

Several months passed. Krua Dee and Nai Chamnan didn't see each other, and Nai Chamnan almost forgot about the glass stopper.

Then one day a very rich man came into the shop. He said the prince of Laos was looking for a jewel. He wanted to give it to his wife. Naturally. Nai Chamnan was pleased to have such a customer. He showed the man fine emeralds and rubies. He showed him sapphires and diamonds. But none of these jewels pleased the man. He found something wrong with every one of them.

Finally Nai Chamnan brought out the glass bottle stopper. The man looked at it. "This is the perfect jewel for the prince," he said. "How much is it?"

Now Nai Chamnan knew that the man was a fool, so he de­cided to charge a fool's price for the bottle stopper. "You must pay me two thousand baht for such a fine jewel," he said.

"That's a fair price," said the man. "But I must get the money from the prince. I'll come back in about a week. Now, don't sell the jewel to anyone else."

Nai Chamnan promised to keep the stopper for the man. He was very happy to have made such a clever sale.

Two days later Krua Dee came to Nai Chamnan's shop. "I want my jewel back," he said. "There's a rich Laotian in town and I think I can sell it to him."

"I'm glad you came in today, old friend," said Nai Chamnan. "I've been wanting to tell you that I made a mistake about the jewel you gave me. When I looked at it carefully, I saw that it was a fine diamond after all."

"Why, that's wonderful," said Krua Dee. "I can sell it to the Laotian for an even higher price."

Nai Chamnan said, "In fact, old friend, I was hoping to buy the jewel myself. I'll give you one thousand five hundred baht for it; and you won't have to bother about the Laotian."

Krua Dee thought about this. At last he decided to sell the bottle stopper to Nai Chamnan. The jeweller was pleased. He knew that he would make five hundred baht when he sold the jewel to the Laotian. Not bad, he thought, for a piece of glass.

Krua Dee took his money and went away to share it with his Lao friend.

Nai Chamnan waited for the Laotian to return. A week went by. Two weeks went by. Three more weeks went by. The Laotian never returned to the shop, and Nai Chamnan never found another buyer for the shiny glass 'diamond'.