Madanasena's Rash Promise

In one night, three men hold a woman in their power, and each lets her go. The husband, the admirer, and the thief. Which of them was truly generous?

Trapped into a rash oath, Madanasena marries, then honours her word by setting out to visit the man she promised. Her husband lets her go to keep her word, a thief on the road robs her but waits, and the admirer, moved by her truthfulness, sends her home untouched. Returning, she is freed by the thief too, jewels and all. Which of the three men was the truly generous one? You judge first, then the king does.

The Burning Ground

Once more the corpse had slipped back to its branch. The king brought it down, shouldered it, and set off over the ash. As he walked, the Vetala told a tale of three men and one long night.

The Woman Who Kept Her Word

In the city of Anangapura there was a merchant's daughter named Madanasena, betrothed to a merchant named Samudradatta. Before the wedding, a young merchant named Dharmadatta, a friend of her brother, saw her in a garden and was overcome with love for her. He caught her alone and pressed his heart on her. Frightened, and only to get free of him, she made a rash promise and sealed it with an oath: let my marriage be celebrated first, she said, and then, before I go to my husband, I will come to you once.

So she was married to Samudradatta. And on her wedding night, rather than break her word by hiding it, she told her husband everything: the young man, the promise, the oath. Her husband was stunned. But he honoured truth above his own claim on her. Let her go, he said. Why should I be the cause of her breaking her word? And he sent her out into the night to keep it.

On the dark road a thief seized her and stripped her of her ornaments. She told him her story and begged leave to keep her promise first, and then return. The thief, struck by something in her, agreed to wait, and let her go on.

She came at last to Dharmadatta. But when he saw her actually arrive, keeping so costly and dangerous a promise, something turned in him. His old passion had cooled with the long waiting, and he thought too of the danger he stood in. I am delighted by your faithfulness, he said. What have I to do with you, another man's wife? Go home. And he sent her back untouched.