Chereads / Vikram Betaal / Chapter 3 - 1) The Old Parrot

Chapter 3 - 1) The Old Parrot

Betaal started speaking " A long time ago there was a kingdom called Mitra. King "Artemis" was ruling over that kingdom. The king always wanted to conquer his neighbour kingdom and wanted to rule it. So he was fighting with his opponent kingdom most of the time with the pretext of the difference in opinion and forgery. The soldiers of the kingdom were facing constant battle due to the king's choice, so their injuries were piling up one after another. The king as well as everyone was worried due to this as it reduced their manpower as well as money. An one unique old and kind parrot was watching this from afar. He knew that his blood can cure most of the fatal wounds. Seeing all of the others trouble the parrot wanted to help them. Thinking about the kingdom's people he collected some of his own blood and gave it to the king after speaking about its usefulness."

Betaal continued " The king became astonished when he found out that all the things the parrot says were true. But he became greedy and wanted all of that parrots kind blood for his soldiers wellness. So he planned a trick and invited the parrot to his palace in the name of giving gifts due to his kindness. The parrot went to the palace and after getting everything he went back to his own base where many of his kind were living. The king had assigned assassins to know that parot's tribe's location. Upon getting to know about the secret place of those magical parrots, the king ordered the elite soldiers to bring out every parrot and kill them for their blood once he issued his order.

Once when that old parrot went out in search of some food into the jungle, the king ordered the soldiers to do their work. As per the king's order the soldiers captured those Parrots and brought them to the palace. All those Parrots were killed for their magical blood. Upon coming back to his place, the old parrot didn't find anyone in his place. So he searched for them here and there and then went to the palace to ask for king's help. When he reached there he could see some soldiers extracting all the blood from his dead parrot companions and throwing their dead body in a hole for cremation.

He could see the damage the king had done to get the magical blood of his kind. All of his kinds that live in that place were murdered and all this was done by the king for his fake glory and rule ? The parrot became very sad for the fact that he was the sole reason for the extinction of his tribe. He blamed himself for helping the king and became very angry at the king for killing his relatives and breaking the trust. He determined that he will take revenge by killing all the relatives near the king. While thinking of an idea and walking, the parrot became very thirsty. So he went to a nearby river to drink water. But he didn't go inside the river because he could see only the footstep marks going towards the river, not coming from the river. He suspected something and tasted it out with a wooden branch. Upon the branch touching the water 5,6 crocodiles ganged upon it. The old parrot became very scared and was ready to run away. But he heard the crocodile king's voice saying " O old parrot !!! me and my soldiers had killed everyone who came to this river for drinking water. You are the only clever one who survived. I'm amazed by your wits and wants to make friends with you. Parrot hesitated at first but then he agreed."

Then a sudden idea came up upon his mind. He asked the crocodile king "How many people can you kill inside the river ?" The crocodile king answered " Water is my territory. Inside the water I'm very powerful. Me and my soldiers could kill as many as we wanted. But remember outside this river I'm as weak as a log. The parrot said " I could bring 100 people with me into the river. Can you kill them all." The crocodile king became happy and said "O friend !!! I'm happy and what else could I ask from a friend who is giving me and my kinds free food." The parrot then asked for some shiny jewellery from the crocodile and the crocodile gave him a diamond necklace from one of its random foods.

The parrot took that necklace and went to the king's garden. Upon seeing shiny jewellery on the parrot the royal gardener informed the king. The king asked the parrot about this. The parrot answered " Rajan !!! In the middle of the jungle there is a magical lake, inside which many previous dynasty kings placed their treasures in a hidden manner." He spoke again "Rajan !!! You can get as many necklaces as you want if you will go with your 100 relatives and make yourself rich beyond belief."

The king, thinking about his kingdom's poverty, agreed and brought out 100 of his relatives with him and ordered them to go inside the lake and bring those necklaces. When they reached the nearby river the parrot told the king to come back. Then he said to the king " Rajan !!! I know a secret way to the vault inside the lake which have even more valuable treasures inside it than this necklace. Let your relatives take all these necklaces, then I'll take you to that vault." The king blinded with greed agreed without any hesitation. After waiting for an hour when nobody returned the king got worried and went again to checkout. After seeing many of his relatives dresses floating on the lake and the red color bloods, he was astonished. The Parrot, who is sitting in the nearby tree said " O fool and greedy king !!! You killed all my brethren for our blood. I've taken revenge and killed all your relatives through crocodiles by sending them inside the river. I've spared you, cause I want you to live alone like me and regret for your whole life."

Betaal ended his story within 63 steps (189 square feet) .

He said to Vikram " O Rajan !!! Now answer my query !!! Both the king and the parrot have killed many innocents for their own agenda. I've got the general idea of who is wrong and who is right, but still I wanted to ask this. Who had done more negative work in between the parrot and the king. Answer my query if you know it. Even after knowing if you don't answer, I'll break your neck and kill you here."

Vikram answered " The parrot had more negative karma, cause he did the same thing as the king had done only for revenge mentality, Which is one of the sin you should not do. Also if you will tell me that the king had done wrong first I agree, but it was in his blood. The king had the sole purpose to rule. He can deceive people through politics, can increase his power through political marriages, can spy others, can attack other kingdoms even if he doesn't have any reason. All of this only depended on his sole behaviour, mentality and thinking process. While the parrot had not got any reason to do the same amount of dirty work like the king had done. The king obviously broke the trust with the parrot, but he would have gotten his result once all the parrot's blood had ended. Also the parrot had told many lies to execute his planning while the king only spied behind the Parrot. " King Vikram added " If the parrot had killed the king only or alternated the quality of their own kind's blood into ineffectiveness, even though he couldn't get his revenge, he could at least put all of the king's effort useless. Then only it should have been fine to a certain degree, but he also killed the innocents exactly like the king. So the parrot had done more wrong work than the king."

Upon hearing Rajan's answers Betaal laughed hard and spoke " Well done, king. I am amazed by your judgement and your thinking of the exact answer and now I can see why the people in your kingdom respect you for your behaviour. But you spoke in between our journey Which broke the promise I've set from the start. So according to the promise I'm going back to my previous position." "Hihihi hihihi !!!" laughter sound can be echoed from the jungle and Betaal returned back to the same tree branch he was hanging previously. All of this happened within 9 steps (27 square feet).

Only before 9 steps (27 square feet) the King Vikram failed in bringing the corpse like the tantrik said. He returned back to his kingdom learning the lesson by Betaal on the quality of a king and judgement. But he wasn't able to keep the promise of bringing the corpse. So he decided to come back tomorrow and bring the corpse back...