How the Wicked Sons Were Duped

There was once a very rich old man who thought he was about to die. So he called his sons together and shared out all his money and belongings among them.

But he did not die. He lived for several more years, and many of them were very unhappy years. He was tired and old, and on top of that his sons were rude and unkind to him. Before, they had tried their hardest to please him, hoping to get more money. Now that they had their share, they did not care how soon he left them. In fact, the sooner the better, they thought, for he was only a nuisance and a cost to them. And they made sure the poor old man knew it.

One day the old man met a friend and told him all his troubles. The friend felt very sorry for him. He promised to think about it and to come back soon and tell him what to do.

A few days later the friend came to visit, and he set down four bags in front of the old man. They were full of nothing but stones and gravel.

“Listen, my friend,” he said. “Your sons will hear that I came here today, and they will ask about it. Tell them I came to pay back a debt I have owed you for years, and that you are thousands of rupees richer than you thought. Keep these bags close to you, and do not let your sons touch them as long as you live. You will soon see a change in how they treat you. Goodbye! I will come again soon to see how you are.”

When the young men heard that their father had even more money, they began to be kinder and more attentive to him than ever before. They kept it up until the very day the old man died. Then they rushed to open the bags, and found nothing inside but stones and gravel!

About this story

This little tale is from Joseph Jacobs’s Indian Fairy Tales (1892). His notes give its source as Knowles’s Folk-Tales of Kashmir and mention that a Gaelic version and a medieval Latin one are also known.

The original is very short, and so is this telling. Nothing has been softened; the old man’s death at the end is mentioned simply, just as Jacobs mentions it.

Read the original: Joseph Jacobs, Indian Fairy Tales (Project Gutenberg #7128, How the Wicked Sons Were Duped)

Reading guidance: Ages 6–8 with adult guidance; includes cruelty and neglect toward an older parent and his eventual death, without graphic detail.

A closer reading

The stones change the sons’ expectations without changing their father’s needs. He required care before the bags arrived and still requires it afterward. Their behaviour improves because they imagine another inheritance, not because the story shows them recognizing his dignity.

The friend supplies both a prop and continuing support: he promises to return, making him the only person who helps without expecting a share. The trick protects the old man within an unjust household, but it does not prove that wealth is the proper basis of respect or that he caused the abuse by giving property away. The final opened bags expose the sons’ motives after the period of care is over.

Try this with the story

Draw the father before and after the bags arrive. List what actually changes and what stays the same about his needs and worth. Then compare the friend’s reason for visiting with the sons’ reason for becoming attentive.

Think about it

• Do the father’s needs change when the bags arrive?
• Why does the sons’ behaviour change?
• How does the friend’s help differ from theirs?
• Does improved treatment prove that the sons have become less greedy?

More stories like this

• Diamond Cut Diamond — another Indian story in which a clever trick puts things right
• How the Raja’s Son Won the Princess Labam — another tale from Jacobs’s Indian Fairy Tales
• The Lambikin — another short tale from the same book