Once upon a time, there was a poor, blind dad and mom who depended on their son to help them get by. Every day, the son would go out and ask people for food. He did this for a long time, but he got really tired of living such a tough life. So, he decided to try his luck in a different place.

He told his wife what he wanted to do, and asked her to take care of his parents while he was gone. He told her to work hard, so his parents wouldn’t get upset and say bad things about him.

One morning, he packed some food in a bag and started walking. He walked for many days until he got to the biggest city in the next country. There, he sat down near a shop and asked for help. The shop owner asked him where he came from, why he was there, and who his family was. The son said he was just trying to find a way to get food for himself, his wife, and his parents.

The shop owner felt sorry for him and told him to visit the kind king of that country. He even offered to go with him to the king’s house. It just so happened that the king was looking for someone honest to take care of a beautiful golden temple he had built. The king was very happy to meet the son and learn that he was a good person. He asked him to take care of the temple and gave him lots of rice and money every year as a thank you.

Two months later, the son’s wife hadn’t heard from him. So, she left home to look for him. Luckily, she ended up in the same city as her husband. She heard that every morning, the king gave a gold coin to anyone who asked for it at the golden temple. So, the next morning, she went to the temple and met her husband.

“Why are you here?” he asked. “Why did you leave my parents? Don’t you care if they get angry at me? Go back home and wait for me to come back.”

“No, no,” she said. “I can’t go back and watch your parents starve. We have no food left at all.”

“Oh no!” cried the son. He quickly wrote something on a piece of paper and gave it to her. “Take this to the king,” he said. “He will give you a lot of money for it.” Then, he told her to go, and she left.

On the paper, he had written three pieces of advice:

1. If you’re traveling and get to a new place at night, be careful where you stay. Don’t fall asleep too quickly, or you might not wake up.
2. If you have a sister and visit her with fancy things, she’ll be happy to see you because of what she can get from you. But if you visit her when you don’t have much, she won’t be so nice.
3. If you need to do something, do it yourself. Do it with all your might and don’t be afraid.

When the wife got home, she told her parents about seeing her husband and about the valuable paper he had given her. But she didn’t want to go to the king herself, so she sent a family member instead. The king read the paper and got angry. He told his guards to punish the family member and send him away.

The next morning, the wife decided to take the paper to the king herself. As she walked along the road, reading it, the king’s son saw her. He asked what she was reading, and she said it was a paper with good advice that she wanted a lot of money for. The prince asked to see it. After he read it, he gave her a special paper that allowed her to get the money and then he rode away. The wife was very thankful. She bought lots of food to last them a long time.

That evening, the prince told his father about meeting the woman and buying the paper. He thought his father would be happy, but he was wrong. The king was even angrier than before and told his son to leave the country!

So, the prince said goodbye to his mom, family, and friends, and rode away on his horse. He didn’t know where he was going. When it got dark, he arrived at a place where a man invited him to stay at his house. The prince said yes, and the man treated him like royalty. He gave him a soft place to sit and the best food to eat.

“Ah!” thought the prince as he got ready for bed. “This is like the first piece of advice the woman gave me. I won’t sleep tonight!”

It was a good thing he decided that, because in the middle of the night, the man got up with a sword and tried to hurt the prince. But the prince woke up and spoke.

“Don’t hurt me,” he said. “What good would it do? You’ll be sorry later, like the man who hurt his dog.”

“What man? What dog?” the man asked.

“I’ll tell you,” said the prince, “if you give me that sword.”

So the man gave him the sword, and the prince began his story:

“A long time ago, there was a rich shop owner who had a pet dog. He lost all his money and had to give the dog away. He borrowed money from another shop owner, leaving the dog as a promise to pay him back. Then, he started his business again.

Not long after that, thieves broke into the other shop owner’s shop and stole everything. There was hardly anything left. But the dog knew what was happening. He followed the thieves and saw where they hid the stolen things, then he went back.

In the morning, everyone was sad because of what had happened. The shop owner was very upset. The dog kept running to the door, pulling on his owner’s shirt, as if he wanted him to go outside. Finally, a friend said that maybe the dog knew where the things were hidden and told the shop owner to follow him. The shop owner did, and the dog led him right to the place where the thieves had hidden everything.

The dog started digging and barking, showing that the things were underneath. So the shop owner and his friends dug and found all the stolen things. Nothing was missing!

The shop owner was very happy. When he got back to his shop, he sent the dog back to his old owner with a letter tied to his collar. In the letter, he wrote about how smart the dog was and asked his friend to forget about the money he owed him. He even offered to give him more money as a gift. When the dog’s old owner saw him coming back, he thought, ‘Oh no! My friend wants his money back. How can I pay him? I don’t have enough money yet. I’ll hurt the dog before he gets here and say someone else did it. Then I won’t have to pay back the money.’ So, he ran out and hurt the dog. Then, the letter fell out of the dog’s collar. The shop owner picked it up and read it. He felt terrible when he realized what he had done!”

“Be careful,” continued the prince, “not to do something you’ll regret forever.”

By the time the prince finished his story, it was almost morning. He left, but not before thanking the man for his kindness.

The prince then went to the country where his sister lived. He dressed up as a traveler and sat down under a tree near the king’s house. He pretended to be very holy. News of the traveler and his amazing kindness reached the king, who was very interested. The king’s wife was very sick, and he had tried everything to make her better, but nothing worked. He thought that maybe this holy man could help her. So, he sent for him. But the traveler refused to go to the king’s house, saying that he lived outside and that if the king wanted to see him, he would have to come himself and bring his wife. So, the king took his wife and brought her to the traveler. The holy man asked her to bow down to him. After she stayed like that for a few hours, he told her to get up and go, because she was healed!

That evening, everyone at the king’s house was upset because the queen had lost her pearl necklace and no one knew where it was. Finally, someone went to the traveler and found it on the ground where the queen had bowed down. When the king heard this, he got very angry and ordered the traveler to be punished. But the prince gave the guards money and escaped from the country. Now he knew that the second piece of advice was true.

Dressed in his own clothes, the prince was walking along one day when he saw a person crying and laughing with their family. “Why are you laughing and crying at the same time?” he asked.

“Leave me alone,” said the person. “It’s none of your business.”

“I’m sorry,” said the prince, “but I’d really like to know why.”

“Well, the king of this country has a daughter who gets married every day, because all her husbands die the first night they spend with her. Almost all the young men here have died, and our son will be next. We laugh because it’s funny that a simple person like our son would marry a princess, but we cry because it’s terrible that he’ll die. What can we do?”

“That is something to laugh and cry about. But don’t cry anymore,” said the prince. “I’ll take your son’s place and marry the princess instead of him. Just give me nice clothes and get me ready for it.”

So, the person gave him beautiful clothes, and the prince went to the king’s house. At night, he was taken to the princess’s room. “Oh no!” he thought. “Am I going to die like all the others?” He held his sword tightly and lay down, planning to stay awake all night and see what would happen. In the middle of the night, he saw two snakes come out of the princess’s nose. They crawled towards him, trying to hurt him, like the others. But he was ready. He grabbed his sword and hurt them when they got close to his bed. In the morning, the king came to check on them and was surprised to hear his daughter and the prince talking happily together. “This must be her husband,” he said, “since he’s the only one who has lived with her.”

“Where are you from? Who are you?” asked the king, coming into the room.

“I’m the son of a king who rules over another country,” replied the prince.

When the king heard this, he was very happy and asked the prince to stay at his house. He even said that the prince would take over the throne when he was gone. The prince stayed there for over a year and then asked if he could visit his own country. The king said yes. He gave him elephants, horses, jewels, and lots of money for the trip and as gifts for his father. Then, the prince left.

On the way, he had to go through the country where his sister lived. News of his arrival reached the king, who came to greet him with respect. He begged him to stay at his house and enjoy his hospitality. While the prince was staying there, he saw his sister, who welcomed him with smiles and hugs. When he left, he reminded her how she and her husband had treated him when he first visited and how he had escaped. Then, he gave them two elephants, two beautiful horses, fifteen soldiers, and lots of jewels.

After that, he went to his own home and told his parents that he was back. Sadly, his parents had both gone blind from crying about him. “Let him come in,” said the king, “and put his hands on our eyes. Then, we’ll be able to see again.” So, the prince went in and hugged his parents. He put his hands on their eyes, and they could see again!

Then, the prince told his father everything that had happened to him and how he had been saved many times by following the advice he had bought from the woman. The king was sorry that he had sent him away, and everyone was happy again.