Tenali Rama was an advisor to the King Krishna Devaraya. He was very clever and spontaneous. Sri Krishna Devaraya had some special type of brinjal plants in his garden. The brinjal was a very rare kind and the curry made out of it was very tasty which was loved by the king. As it was a rare type, the garden was guarded and no one was allowed to see the plants without the king’s permission.

Once the emperor arranged an excellent dinner for his advisors and the brinjal curry was served. Tenali Rama enjoyed the brinjal curry very much and went home. But, he was unable to forget the taste. He told his wife about the taste of the curry. Tenali Rama’s wife also liked brinjal curry, she asked Tenali Rama to bring home few brinjals, so that she can prepare a curry. But, Tenali Rama knew that the king was taking extreme care about the brinjal plants and he can easily find out even if one brinjal was missing from his garden. And, the king would punish such a thief severely, if he was caught stealing a brinjal from his garden.

But, Tenali’s wife pleaded him to bring a brinjal from the garden without telling anyone. Tenali Rama had no choice other than stealing a brinjal from the emperor’s garden. One night, he went to the garden, jumped over the wall and plucked few brinjals from the garden. Tenali Rama was happy that no one had seen him. His wife cooked the brinjals and the curry was very tasty. Like all mothers, she too loved her son very much and wanted to serve the brinjal curry to him. But, Tenali Rama asked her not to do such a thing, because if their son revealed to anyone that he had a rare brinjal curry, then they may get caught and get punished for stealing a brinjal from the garden.

But his wife did not agree. She wanted to serve the curry to her son. She was unable to eat the curry alone without serving her little kid who was sleeping after doing his homework on the roof of their house. She asked Tenali Rama to find a way so that their son can also taste the brinjal curry. Tenali Rama also loved his son, so he thought of an idea. With hesitation, he went to the roof to wake up his child with a bucket of water, and poured the water on the child. When the child woke up, he said “It is raining. Let’s go inside the house and have dinner”. After going inside the room, he changed the clothes of his son and gave him the rice and brinjal curry for the dinner. Tenali Rama told his wife loudly that “it was raining outside, and let the boy sleep in the room”.

Next day, the emperor came to know that few brinjals were missing in his garden. The Gardener who kept the count of each vegetable and flower found that three brinjals were missing. It became a challenging issue for the emperor and so he took it very seriously. He announced a reward for the person who can catch the thief. The gardener told the king that only Tenali Rama was capable of doing such things. The emperor sent a few policemen and asked Tenali Rama to come immediately. Once Tenali Rama came he asked him about the missing brinjals. Then Tenali Rama told, “I was not aware of the missing brinjals”. Then the gardener told “Tenali Rama was lying. Let’s enquire his son”.

The king sent his policemen to bring Tenali Rama’s son. Once his son came, the king asked what vegetable he had for dinner last night. The child replied, “The brinjal curry and it was very tasty”. Then, the king told Tenali Rama that he must accept his crime. But Tenali Rama said his son slept very early, and he might be saying something which he saw in his dream.

So, the king asked the little kid that “can you please explain clearly what you did yesterday after coming from the school?”

Tenali Rama’s son replied that “yesterday after coming from the school, I played for some time and after that, I went on to the roof, did my homework, and slept on the roof. But when the rain started, my father came and woke me up. By that time my dress was fully wet, then we went inside, had dinner and slept again”.

The gardener was shocked because there was no rain at all yesterday. So, they thought the kid had a dream and allowed Tenali Rama to go without any punishment. However, Tenali Rama told the truth to the king later, and was pardoned by the emperor for his clever witty idea.

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