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| The poor man caring for the four caught in the storm. Source: Whispering Books |
- Once there was a Prince who was very evil and cruel and he was called Prince Wicked. One day, Prince Wicked and his servants were swimming in the river when a great storm approached. The servants swam away from Prince Wicked hoping that he would drown. When they arrived on bank, the other servant who did not go into the water wondered where the Prince was. The servants acted clueless. They went back to the king and told him what had happened, the king set out a search party for the prince, but had no luck. You see, the Prince, worried about drowning found a log and climbed on it to avoid drowning. He was yelling for help the whole time. While floating, a snake, a rat, and a parrot also sought refuge on the log. Eventually, around the bend of the river, there lived a poor man. When he heard the prince calling, he knew that he must rescue them and so he did. When he got them ashore, he took them into his home and he first tended to the animals, as they were in much worse shape then the prince. He continued to care for everyone, but overtime, the prince grew angry that the poor man was taking care of the animals first. When they regained their strength and left, the snake and rat were so grateful that they told the man they knew were gold was buried, and he could have it all whenever he wanted. The parrot promised the man rice whenever he needed it. The Prince, still angry told the man to come to his when he was king and he would give him riches. The old king had died, and Prince Wicked became king. The poor man then decided to test each of the animals lives he had saved that day. All the animals held to their promise, but when the poor man went to the king, he told the guards to behead him, as he did not want them to know that the poor man saved him. The guards and the people. being very leery of the wicked kings, decided to kill him and make the poor man king. When the poor man became king, he went to each of the animals he saved that day and brought them into the palace to live happily ever after for their gratefulness and selflessness.
- My ideas
- My first idea is to make the poor man a god and when the prince does not keep his promise, the man makes him pay for his evil heart.
- Second, my idea is to put this in the poor man's perspective and still make him a god. I want to make this like a last chance type story for the prince. Like this particular experience, getting caught in the storm and cared for by the poor man makes him change his life. I could make the prince so touched by a man with so little caring for him that it causes him to changes his ways or I could leave the story the same and make the poor man keep giving him chances until he does not keep his word and tries to kill him.
- Bibliography: "The Wicked Prince and the Grateful Animals" from More Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbit.
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