Tale of "Old Mother's Stone"

Once upon a time there was an old women, whose son was a painter. He was very famous for painting human faces on masks which look very real. Once it happened that the king of SriRamPur, a place near to our village was passing by. He saw his paintings and was more than pleased by the art. He offered him a place in his royal palace and asked him to paint only for royals from then onwards. But the boy loved his mother and he knew that she would never want to leave this place as this was the house she spent her life in and had memories of her husband. So the boy humbly refused to king’s offer. But somehow the King took his refusal as his insult and ordered his slaves to burn the house and kill the boy leaving behind the mother. When the boy was asked for his last wish, he requested the king to give him one night before his assassination. Upon asking the reason he said something that king couldn’t believe. He said that because he don't want to see her mother to see his dead body and live alone for the rest of her life in need of help of others, so he will kill her and then the assassin can kill him. King proposed to let the assassin kill her for him. But he said that he don’t want her mother to have a painful death and he will mix poison in her food and she will die while sleeping. King agreed to his wish and left, leaving behind one of his slaves to kill the painter boy by the next day. That night, the boy requested his mother to allow him to cook for her. He cooked the food and tea for her and after the dinner while she was about to sleep he told her about his conversation with the king. He also told her about his plans ahead which did not included his or his mother’s death. As per the plan, his mother went outside where the assassin was sitting and cried out loud saying that her son committed suicide. After hearing this the assassin ran towards inside where the boy was waiting for him. As soon as the assassin entered inside, the boy attacked him with a big rock and keep hitting his head till he died.

After killing the assassin, the boy painted his last masterpiece. The last of his creation was the face mask of his assassin. He wore his mask the other day and went to see the king. He told king that both mother and painter were dead. King bothered least about the news, just nodded and became busy in his work. Then he returned and took his mother and left the place but before going he wrote on one of the big stones in-front of his house “I will return one day. Do not destroy this house. It belongs to us”. That stone is known as “Old mother’s stone”.

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