Slow, the Weaver

In a certain town lived a weaver called Slow. One day every peg in his loom broke. So he picked up his axe and went to look for wood, and his search took him all the way to the seashore. There he found a great sissoo tree. “That is a good big tree,” he thought. “If I cut it down, I can make plenty of new tools for my loom.” And he raised his axe.

But a fairy lived in the tree, and it spoke to him. “My friend, this tree is my home. Please spare it. I live here very happily, cooled by the breezes off the ocean waves.”

“But what am I to do?” said the weaver. “Without wooden tools I cannot work, and my family is going hungry. Please move somewhere else, and quickly. I mean to cut this tree down.”

“I have taken a liking to you,” said the fairy. “Ask for anything you like, but leave this tree alone.”

“In that case,” said the weaver, “I will go home and ask my friend and my wife what I should wish for, and then I will come back.” The fairy agreed, and the weaver set off home.

As he came into town he met his best friend, the barber. “My friend,” he said, “a fairy has offered me a wish. Tell me what to ask for.” “If that is really true,” said the barber, “ask for a kingdom. You can be king, and I will be your chief minister, and we shall both enjoy everything this world has to offer.”

“Quite right,” said the weaver. “But I shall ask my wife as well.” “Don’t,” said the barber, and he recited a string of old sayings about never taking a woman’s advice. But the weaver answered, “You may be right, but I shall still ask her. She is a good wife.”

So he hurried home. “My dear wife,” he said, “a fairy has offered us a wish. Tell me what to ask for. My friend the barber says I should ask for a kingdom.”

“Dear husband,” she said, “what sense does a barber have? Don’t listen to him. Being king means nothing but trouble: worrying about war and peace, alliances and plots. Even a king’s own sons and brothers wish him dead. Who would want such a thing?”

“You are right,” said the weaver. “But then what shall I ask for?” “At the moment you weave one piece of cloth a day,” she said, “and that pays for everything we need. Ask for a second pair of arms and another head. Then you can weave one piece of cloth in front and another behind. One will pay for the household, and with the other we can live in style and be respected by everyone.”

The weaver was delighted. “Splendid, my faithful wife! That is a wonderful idea. I shall do exactly that.”

So he went back to the fairy and made his wish. “Sir, since you offer me what I want, please give me a second pair of arms and an extra head.” And as he spoke, he became a man with two heads and four arms.

Full of joy, he hurried home. But when the townspeople saw him coming, they thought he was a demon, and they attacked him with clubs and stones until he died.

Where this story comes from

“Slow, the Weaver” appears in the long chain of tales in Book V, “Ill-Considered Action,” of Arthur W. Ryder’s 1925 Panchatantra. The wheel-bearer of “The Four Treasure-Seekers” tells it to show what happens to someone who will not listen to a friend’s advice.

Ryder’s barber reels off several old verses against asking women for advice; this page mentions them without repeating them. The barber expects to benefit by becoming minister; the wife’s plan aims to increase the household’s production but overlooks how others will react.

Read the original: Arthur W. Ryder, The Panchatantra (1925), Internet Archive

Best for ages 9–12 — a sharp, funny-then-grim tale about wishes; the ending is a fatal mob attack, so adult preview and discussion are advised.

A closer reading

Slow begins with a concrete problem: broken loom parts prevent him from earning food. Both advisers expand that repair problem into a much larger transformation. The barber’s kingdom would also give the barber a powerful job; advice should be examined for the adviser’s own interest.

The wife’s proposal focuses on output but not on how the changed body will be perceived. Yet the fatal result is also the townspeople’s choice to attack someone unfamiliar without investigation. The outcome does not prove that women are poor advisers or that an unusual body deserves violence. The wish and the response to it require separate judgments.

Try this with the story

Write the original need at the center of a page, then compare three possible wishes: tools, a kingdom and extra limbs. For each, list the intended benefit, a possible consequence and who might gain besides the weaver.

Think about it

• How far do the proposed wishes move from repairing the loom?
• What does the barber hope to gain?
• Why should the townspeople’s response be judged separately from the wish?

Related stories

• The Four Learned Fools — another Book V tale of cleverness without sense
• The Brahmin’s Dream — another foolish plan for getting rich
• The Foolish Weaver — a Punjabi weaver’s troubles