(This is an O.V.Vijayan short story called "Niroopakante Prashnam" that I translated to English.)
A fish bone got stuck in Emperor Akbar's throat. There was no remedy for this in Unani medicine. So a stork was beckoned instead.
The stork entered.
"Remove the fish bone, you'll be rewarded", said the Emperor.
"Your command", said the stork.
The stork removed the bone, then waited for it's reward.
"Go!", said the Emperor.
"Reward", said the stork.
"Has a stork that has put it's head in a Mughal Emperor's throat ever gotten it's head out alive?", asked the Emperor: "What's a greater reward than your head?"
Realising that this story was not Emperor's own creation, but borrows from a foreign story, the stork worried that literature had lost it's vigour and returned, leaving the problem to critics.
A fish bone got stuck in Emperor Akbar's throat. There was no remedy for this in Unani medicine. So a stork was beckoned instead.
The stork entered.
"Remove the fish bone, you'll be rewarded", said the Emperor.
"Your command", said the stork.
The stork removed the bone, then waited for it's reward.
"Go!", said the Emperor.
"Reward", said the stork.
"Has a stork that has put it's head in a Mughal Emperor's throat ever gotten it's head out alive?", asked the Emperor: "What's a greater reward than your head?"
Realising that this story was not Emperor's own creation, but borrows from a foreign story, the stork worried that literature had lost it's vigour and returned, leaving the problem to critics.
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