There once lived a king by the name Vijay Chandra in the Kingdom of Dolakpur. He was a rich, cunning, and wicked man. He would take great pleasure in assigning his attendants jobs beyond their capacity.

Tired and overburdened by the king, his servants would ask him to release them from their job. He would agree but chop off their right ear before setting them free. The servants were helpless and many of them lost their ears but could not raise their voice against the King. The people of Dolakpur lived in fear, terrified of their king’s whims and fancies.

One day, a boy from another kingdom came to Dholakpur. He was puzzled to see people missing their right ear and enquired of it. To this it was told of how the king tortured his servants by chopping off their right ear.

The boy decided to take care of the matter and approached the king asking for work as his domestic help. The king, as usual, laid out his condition for working at the palace. But before agreeing to King’s conditions the boy said that if he left the service, the king could have his ear but if the king asked him to leave service, the king would have to give up his ear. The king laughed contemptuously after hearing the boy’s condition but gave him the job as a personal attendant.

One day, the king asked the boy to take his cattle for grazing. At dusk when the boy returned with the cattle back to the palace, they were covered in mud and dust.

Angry, the king ordered the boy clean them. So the boy took the cattle for cleaning. He took some stones from the garden and started scrubbing the animals hard which made their skin peel off and they developed wounds on their bodies. Some cows died due to bleeding. The king was angry when he found out some of his cattle had died due to the boy’s foolishness. But he could not fire the boy from his job and kept quiet.

The following night, the king’s young son woke up and asked his father to escort him to the washroom. The king called the boy and asked him to help his son. The boy escorted the young prince to the washroom and threatened him, saying that he could only pee or poop, but not do both. The prince got scared and ran back to his father, asking him to help him out.

The king called the boy again, who continued to scare the prince. After running back and forth a couple of times, the prince tripped and fell breaking his head. The next day the king found out what had happened and was furious but he could not make the boy leave service to protect his ear.

After a while, the king asked the boy to get him some firewood from the forest. The boy went and collected a large bundle of wood. When he reached the palace he saw the queen and asked her where to keep the wood. She told him to keep it outside. The boy went out and came in from the back door and again asked the queen where he should keep the bundle of wood. Queen again told him to keep it outside.

This happened many times until the queen screamed in anger that he should place the bundle on her head. The boy quickly dumped the heavy bundle of wood on the queen’s head injuring her severely.

The king was devastated when he heard of this and decided to meet his father-in-law who could help him in dealing with the boy. When the entourage set out, the boy was given the job of carrying a pot of drinking water for the king.

On the way, they came across a river. The king stopped and bowed to the river, throwing few coins into the water for his safe journey. The boy saw the King paying his obeisance to the river and he threw the pot of water into the river with folded hands.

Having travelled a while King felt thirsty and asked for water. The boy stepped forward and said he had thrown the pot into the river as the king had thrown in coins since he didn’t have money. The King was furious but said nothing and continued on his journey.

As they reached closer to the father-in-law’s palace, the boy was asked to go ahead and inform the father-in-law about his arrival and prepare a delicious meal as he was hungry and tired. The boy did so, informing them of the king’s arrival but said the king was feeling ill due to the strain of the journey and requested a simple diet of gruel and boiled vegetables. He also coaxed the king’s in-laws into giving him delectable food to eat.

This angered the king to no end as he could no longer bear with the boy’s misbehaviour. Losing his temper, he yelled at the boy to leave service.

 Without any hesitation, the boy reminded him of their agreement and demanded the king chop off his ear. The king had no other choice than to slice off his ear.

The boy also asked the King to hand over the jar filled with ears of previous attendants he had collected over the years. He then left the palace and attached ears onto each and every person who had lost their ears before.

A Folktale sourced from Talking Myths.

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