The Three Wishes

By Shree Shree Shachandra Das

There once lived a weaver and his wife. They were very poor. The weaver begged for alms every day, and that was how the two of them survived. But his wife was hard to please! On days when his begging bowl was empty, the weaver dreaded returning home.

By ill luck, one day the weaver could not get a single alms. After wandering all day, he was returning home in the evening with empty hands when he sat down near a dense forest and began to cry.

Suddenly, what was this? Before him appeared a tiny fairy, no bigger than a finger.

The fairy asked, “Child, why are you crying?”

The weaver replied, “I am very unfortunate. I beg daily to survive, and today I didn’t get a single thing. How can I return home now? That’s why I’m crying.”

The fairy said, “Don’t cry, child. I grant you a boon—whatever you wish for once, twice, or thrice will come true.”

The weaver was astonished—his wishes would come true! He could have food, wealth, anything he wanted! Overjoyed, he ran home to tell his wife the good news.

But no matter how much the weaver explained, his wife kept saying, “It’s all nonsense.” Finally, a thought struck her, and she said, “Fine, if what you say is true, let’s test it right now! We’ve never eaten royal delicacies—wish for such food and let’s see!”

The weaver agreed, and as soon as he thought of royal fare, heaps of steaming fried bread, pots of sweet curd, trays of sweets, korma, and pulao began filling their little hut! Neither the weaver nor his wife had ever seen such food in their lives, let alone eaten it. How could they finish it all?

But as they ate, both of them began to regret it—“Alas! Why did we waste one wish like this? If we had asked for wealth, food would have come with it anyway.”

Then came the quarrel—The weaver said, “Wife, why did you suggest testing it?”The wife said, “Why did you agree without thinking?”

In anger, the weaver burst out, “May this food stick to your head!”

The moment he said it, all the food—fried bread, sweets, trays and pots—piled onto his wife’s head, weighing her down. Under the load of a hundred kinds of food, she was almost crushed! No amount of pulling or pushing could move it.

At last, the wife fell at the weaver’s feet, crying, “You are my husband. This is the punishment for scolding you. Forgive me—use your last wish to remove these pots from my head.”

The weaver then made his final wish, and the pots fell away.

Thus, the weaver’s three wishes were gone. They got no kingdom, no wealth, no treasure—but they gained peace of mind, which is more precious than any royal jewel. And from then on, the husband and wife became the true owners of that jewel.