Once upon a time, there lived an old woodman and his wife in a small hut, right next to a rich man’s orchard. The orchard was so close that boughs of a pear tree grew right over the fence of the woodman’s cottage.

The rich man, being reasonable, said that any of the pears that fell into the woodman’s yard would belong to him. So, the woodman and his wife would eagerly wait for the pears to ripen and fall into their yard. However, after some time, the pears didn’t fall. The wife, being a grumbler by nature, began to complain about the pears. She said they would become old beggars waiting for the pears and forced her husband to work even harder than he did, while only giving him dry bread to eat. As a result the old man became thinner and thinner, until he could no longer take it and demanded his wife make him some khichri.

This soured the old woman’s mood, but she still took rice and pulses, some butter and spices, and began to cook khichri. Its savory smell made the old man’s mouth water, but his wife was not an easy woman. She demanded that he bring her a large amount of wood before he could eat the khichri. 

So the old man set off for the forest and began to chop wood with so much enthusiasm that he soon had a large bundle. Just then, a bear passed by and noticed the old man chopping away with vigor. The bear was not a harmless one, and it approached the woodman and asked why he was gathering such a large bundle.

The old man told the bear about his wife’s khichri and the bear, being a glutton, felt his mouth water in anticipation. “Do you think your wife would give me some khichri if I brought her some wood?” the bear asked. The woodman began to think about how he could take advantage of the bear’s eagerness and told him that if he brought a ton of wood, his wife would surely give him khichri. Even though the bear felt it was too much, the thought of good food sent him looking for wood. The old man cheerfully returned home with his bundle and told his wife what had happened.

Instead of being happy, however, his wife was angry as he hadn’t specified how much khichri the bear could have. “That greedy bear will probably finish off all our khichri,” she angrily said. “In that case,” the woodman said, looking pale, “we should start eating right away and leave some for the bear.” The wife agreed that it was a good plan and they began eating, each entreating the other to leave some for the bear. But the khichri was delicious, and was completely eaten up. Now the man and his wife began to argue with each other, blaming the other for eating too much. 

“The bear will be furious,” the old man mused. The old woman thought for a while and then said, “That won’t matter as long as we get the wood. I will lock away the rest of the food and leave the khichri pot over the fire. We will hide ourselves away and wait for the bear. When he comes, he will be furious to find there is no khichri for him, but he will not take the wood away even if he ruins the house. Therefore, we will still gain from this exchange.” The man agreed with his wife, and before long, they had hidden themselves away.

After a while, the bear entered their hut, carrying a load of wood. He called for the woodman and his wife, but no one appeared. Smelling the khichri, he looked around and saw the pot over the fire. He went to take his share, but found not even a grain left. Enraged, he began to throw furniture and tried breaking objects in the hope that he might find some food. However, he found nothing. The bear wanted to take revenge on them, but as the woman had predicted, didn’t want to take the wood away as it was too heavy a burden. As he left the house with the khichri pot, he saw the pear tree.

Seeing the number of pears, he decided he would take all of them and sell it to the other bears. He climbed the wall and began plucking all the ripe pears. When he came across pears that were still unripe, he ate them, not wanting to leave them behind for the old couple. The couple, on the other hand, were watching the bear, unsure of how to react. Suddenly, the old woman sneezed. The couple was afraid that they would be discovered, but the bear thought someone was shooting a gun at him. Afraid, he jumped down and ran away, leaving the pot full of pears behind.

So the old couple got the khichri, the wood, and the pears, while the bear was left with a stomach ache, having eaten so many unripe pears.

A Folktale sourced from Tales of India: Folk Tales from Bengal, Punjab and Tamil Nadu illustrated by Svabhu Kohli and Viplov Singh.

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