How Andare ate the King’s Sugar

A long time ago, during the reign of King Keerthi Sri Rajasinghe, there lived a clever court jester named Andare. With his sharp wit and mischievous tricks, he entertained the royals and was granted unusual freedom in the king’s court.

One morning, while visiting the royal palace, Andare noticed some sugar spread out on a mat to dry. In those days, sugar was a rare luxury, imported for the elite, while common people used jaggery or honey as sweeteners. Seeing the sugar, Andare was overcome with greed, and he immediately began plotting a way to taste it. Feigning ignorance, Andare asked the king,  “Your Majesty, what is that drying on the mat?”. The king, suspicious of Andare’s intentions, decided to outsmart him and replied, “It’s a kind of white sand, Andare.” He pretended to accept this answer and left the palace. When he got home, he called his wife and son and shared his plan.

The next day, he was conversing with the king when all of a sudden, his son ran in crying, “Oh, Father! Our dear mother has died!” Andare fell on his knees and began to weep, “What use is of my life now? I too want to die! Let there be sand in my mouth!” Then, before the stunned king and his courtiers, Andare grabbed handfuls of the “white sand” and began eating it. His son, weeping, followed his father and started shoveling sugar into his mouth.

At first, the king was too shocked to react. But as the mat of sugar grew emptier, he quickly realized that the clever jester had outwitted him once again! Bursting into laughter, the king finally said, “Take home what is left on the mat, and feed a little to your dead wife. She might come back to life, Andare!”

-Rtr. Nethmi Marcus