Once upon a time, there was a shepherd in a village.

He had a number of sheep but had no land of his own.

The other villagers thought that his sheep would damage their crops and insisted that either he buys land of his own or leaves the village.

So he bought some land.

But the land was barren.

He sowed wheat in it, but the crop he got was very poor.

The shepherd was getting old, he lost his eyesight also.

He handed over his sheep and the land to his son to take care.

The son also didn’t know what to do with the land.

One day, he was sitting in the field wondering how to go about his livelihood?

That time three goddesses came there: goddess of harvest, goddess of wealth and goddess of courage.

There was always competition between them as to who is the greatest, who is the most powerful among the three of them.

Goddess of harvest said: I will get a wonderful harvest of this barren land and this boy’s life would change thereafter.

I will make this land fertile.

She waved her magic wand and suddenly, tall wheat plants sprang up from everywhere, golden coloured, as tall as a man.

Each one had big big bunches of wheat and the plants bent down due to their weight.
Nobody had seen such healthy and rich wheat plants before.

At that time, the goddess of courage said: I am going to remove courage from this boy’s mind.

See what happens.

And she removed courage from the boy’s mind.

The boy looked around and he saw huge tall wheat all around in his field which was barren till some time back.

He became scared; this must be an act of some evil spirit.

He started running back home.

The goddess of wealth said: see my power, she dropped a bag full of gold coins on the road.

The boy was so scared that he was running with his eyes closed.

He didn’t even see the bag.

He reached home and reported whatever happened to his father and said he would never go back to that field again.

Back in the field, a trader was passing by.

He saw the golden wheat and was impressed.

He had travelled around in a lot of places by had never seen something like this before.

He saw opportunity for good business.

He asked around whose wheat was that and reached the shepherd’s home.

Will you sell that wheat to me?- he asked.

The shepherd and the boy readily agreed.

The trader also agreed to take in the boy as his assistant upon his father’s request.

He paid the shepherd a good price, harvested the wheat, loaded all that into a cart, and left with the boy.

They went to the neighbouring country and showed the magical wheat to the king of that country.

The trader told that this wheat is so good that if you buy them and sow them in your own land, your country will never face hunger again.

The king bought all that wheat at a good price.

The goddess of wealth was still working very hard to help the boy.

She put ideas into the trader’s mind.

With the money that he received from the king, he bought an elephant and royal dress for the boy and went into the neighbouring country with the boy seated on top of the elephant wearing royal clothes.

He told everyone there that the boy was a very rich prince and was looking for a suitable alliance, and he was his servant.

When the news came to the king of that country he invited them to the palace.

Looking at the royal clothes of the boy and the elephant, the king was convinced that he was really a prince.

He said: I am willing to offer my beautiful daughter to you as your wife.

Goddess of wealth has given him an opportunity to marry a princess.

The boy became scared: no, no, what if they find out that I am only a shepherd boy later on?

They would kill me.

He ran away.

The trader searched him out and shouted at him.

You are my assistant and you have to do what I tell you.

If you don’t, I will finish you myself.

The boy didn’t know what to do.

He was afraid of everything because the goddess of courage had left his mind.

The goddess of wealth was still persistently trying to make him wealthy.

The trader went back to the place and told the king: there are some very strange and special customs in the prince’s country connected to marriage.

If the groom likes the bride, he has to run away first, that is how he expresses his liking.

Then the groom’s family has to catch him, tie him up, and forcefully get him married threatening him every now and them showing swords and other weapons.

They did exactly as the trader told and the boy’s marriage took place with the princess.

In the palace, the princess approached him wearing a beautiful dress and ornaments, looking like a goddess herself.

The boy suddenly remembered some stories he had heard in childhood.

Now, this princess is going to suddenly turn into a demoness and eat me.

He jumped out through the window and ran away.

The trader again searched him out.

Now the goddess of courage said: now I am going to give courage back to his mind again, and see what happens.

The boy got courage back.

Suddenly he realized what a fool he had been all this while.

He said: I am willing to go back to the palace.

Trader and the boy got back to the palace.

The trader said: your majesty, pardon us.

This was yet another strange custom of the prince’s family.

He has to run away the first time the princess comes to him.

Now, the customs are over and everything will be normal.

The boy became the husband of the princess and later on became the king himself.

The trader also spent the rest of his life comfortably as his minister.

The goddess of courage told the other two: see my importance.

If I am not there, you both can not do anything.

Only if courage is there you can become prosperous wealthy and famous.