In The Orientalist, vol. i, p. 136, a story is given regarding twenty-five idiots, in which is a variant of this tale. Some robbers whom one of them was assisting left him outside a house with a basket that he had brought out of it. While they were inside searching for booty, he found in the basket the dress worn in representations of a demon termed Garā Yakā, and put it on. When the robbers came out they thought he was the demon himself, and ran off, with the idiot at their heels. In the end, they jumped into a well, were followed by him, and all were drowned.
No. 58
The Stupid Boy
In a certain city there are a Gamarāla, a Gama-gāēni (his wife), and a son of theirs. The Gamarāla went to the chena. The Gama-gāēni lay down, and told the Gama-puta (the son) to examine her head [for insects]. While he was looking through the hair she fell asleep, and a fly settled on her head. “Aḍē! Fly, do not bite our mother’s head,” he said, “mother will scold me.”
The fly having gone flying away, settled again on her head. Saying, “Now then, this fly is biting mother’s head again,” he placed his mother’s head gently on the ground. Then having gone and taken a rice pestle, and come back with it, he said, “Is the fly still biting the head?” and struck at the fly with the rice pestle, killing his mother with the blow.
The boy’s father having come, tried to arouse her. “How is it that mother is dead?” he asked. The boy said, “A fly was biting our mother’s head. I struck it with the rice pestle. Because of it she died.” So the Gamarāla took the woman away and buried her.
Then he came home with the boy. Having arrived, the Gamarāla told the boy to make a pot of gruel. Having made the pot of gruel he told the boy to take it, and they went to the jungle to cut fence sticks. The man, cutting and cutting the fence sticks, told the boy to draw them out, and throw them down. Then the boy, taking the fence sticks, threw them into the river.
Taking the pot of gruel, and making a raised platform of sticks, he placed it on it. The Gamarāla said to the boy, “Now then, as you have come here, go and drink gruel.” Then the boy having gone under the stick frame, and pierced the bottom of the pot, and made a hole through it, placed his mouth under it, and drank a sufficient quantity. Still the gruel comes from the pot, so the boy said to the pot of gruel, “Father is there. Don’t come out, gruel.”