Vikram Betal - The four boys who made a lion

Mon October 3, 2011 by Kunal Bansal

Once upon a time there lived four sons of a poor brahmin who taught them all
the Vedas and the holy scriptures. On their parents death, they decided to go
and stay with their mother's father. But on reaching there they found that they
were unwelcome there and that their cousins were unreceptive to the brothers.
Then the brothers decided to each go out into the world and learn a special
skill and come back and meet at a common place after a while. So they
dispersed and came back to the same place at the appointed time. Each told
what he had learnt. The first one said, ' I can create flesh of a creature from a
single one of the creature'. The second one said, ' I know how to grow the
hair and skin of a creature if it has flesh and bones.' The third one said, 'I can
create the limbs of a creature if its form is complete with skin hair and flesh
and bones'. The fourth one said, ' I know how to give life to that creature
once it is complete in form with limbs'.
So they set off into the forest to find a piece of bone on which they could test
their skills. The first one they found was a lion's. So each of them displayed
his skill and created a live huge Lion, which as fate would have it, killed all
four of them and sped away.
Betaal stops and asks King Vikram asks this question: Who among the four
brothers is responsible for the death of all of them? Vikram replies with a
lot of thought, 'The fourth one, as he was the one who gave life to the
otherwise dead structure of bones flesh and limbs and hair'
As soon as Vikram had finished his answer, Betaal disappeared back to the
tree.