Eesara and Caneesara: A Tale of Wits and Trickery
Eesara and Caneesara: A Tale of Wits and Trickery
Adapted from Tales of India: Folktales from Bengal, Punjab, and Tamil Nadu
Partners in Misfortune
In a bustling market town of India, two merchants—one Hindu named Eesara and one Muslim named Caneesara—had formed a business partnership many years ago. Once prosperous traders with thriving businesses, they had fallen on difficult times. Their fortunes had gradually dwindled until both men found themselves living in poverty.
One morning, Caneesara visited his partner’s modest home. “Friend,” he said with evident distress, “could you spare something—some money, grain, or even a little bread? My family has nothing to eat today.”
Eesara shook his head sadly. “My friend, your situation is no worse than mine. We too have nothing. What can I possibly give you?”
Disappointed, Caneesara returned home empty-handed, his hunger unrelieved.
The Brass Plate
After Caneesara had gone, Eesara turned to his wife. “All we have left of value is this brass plate and a single brass cup,” he said, examining their last possessions. “The plate might fetch a good price. Let’s hang it in a net from the ceiling above our bed for safekeeping. Put some water in it too, so that if Caneesara tries to steal it while we sleep, the water will spill on our faces and wake us.”
His wife nodded and did as he suggested, suspending the plate in a net directly above where they slept.
That very night, Caneesara, aware of the brass plate’s existence and desperate for something to sell, decided to attempt to steal it. Long after midnight, when he was certain the household would be asleep, he crept to Eesara’s home and carefully lifted the door latch.
In the dim moonlight filtering through the window, he spotted the plate hanging in its net above the sleeping couple. Being a clever man, Caneesara suspected a trap. He cautiously extended his finger through the net and discovered that the plate contained water, just as Eesara had planned.
Undeterred, Caneesara gathered a handful of sand from outside. With extraordinary patience, he dropped the sand grain by grain into the plate until all the water was absorbed. Then, with the delicacy of a surgeon, he extracted the plate from the net and slipped away into the night.
The Marked Reed
On his way home, Caneesara realized he should hide the plate temporarily until he could safely sell it. He approached a nearby tank—a large artificial pond—and waded in. After burying the plate in the mud beneath the water, he marked the spot by planting a tall reed he had plucked from the bank. Satisfied with his ingenuity, he returned home and went to bed.
When Eesara awoke the next morning, he immediately noticed the missing plate. “Wife!” he exclaimed, “Caneesara has been here. He’s stolen our plate!”
Eesara hurried to his partner’s house and searched it thoroughly, but found nothing. Disappointed, he went to the tank later that day for his customary bath. At the water’s edge, he noticed a solitary reed swaying in the breeze—a reed that hadn’t been there the day before.
“This must be Caneesara’s doing,” he muttered to himself. Wading into the water, he investigated the area around the reed and, to his delight, recovered his brass plate. He carried it home triumphantly but, showing his own cunning, left the reed standing as if nothing had been disturbed.
A few days later, Caneesara returned to the tank. Wading out to his marker, he searched the mud for the brass plate, but his efforts yielded nothing. “Ah,” he groaned in frustration, “Eesara has been here.” Vexed by this turn of events, he returned home empty-handed once more.
A Desperate Plan
Soon after, Caneesara visited Eesara again with a new proposition. “Friend,” he said, “we’re both as poor as we can be. Let’s travel to another region with our account books and see if we can recover some old debts. Perhaps we can improve our fortunes.”
Eesara agreed, and the two partners set out together.
After a long journey, they arrived at a city where a wealthy merchant had recently died. Making inquiries, they learned that following his cremation, his remains had been properly interred at a specific location. Seeing an opportunity, Eesara altered the ledgers he had brought, creating a fictitious debt of forty thousand rupees owed by the deceased merchant.
As night fell, the partners went to the burial site and dug a small chamber. Caneesara concealed himself inside while Eesara carefully covered him with sticks and earth, restoring the appearance of the grave so perfectly that no one would suspect it had been disturbed.
The Voice from Beyond
The next morning, Eesara, carrying his doctored account books, presented himself at the home of the dead merchant’s sons. “Your father and grandfather,” he announced solemnly, “were indebted to our firm. The total amount due is forty thousand rupees, which I must now request you pay without delay.”
The sons were outraged. “We owe you nothing!” they protested. “Why wasn’t this enormous claim presented before?”
“The debt is genuine,” Eesara insisted calmly. “If you doubt me, I appeal to your father himself. Let him be the judge. I challenge you to accompany me to his grave.”
The sons, faced with this solemn invocation, agreed to this unusual test. The merchant’s name had been Bahnooshâh.
At the graveside, Eesara called out in a loud voice: “O Bahnooshâh, model of honor and integrity, hear and answer! Are you indebted in the sum of forty thousand rupees to the house of Eesara and Caneesara, or are you not?”
After Eesara repeated this question three times, Caneesara spoke from beneath the earth in a hollow, otherworldly voice: “Oh, my sons, if you honor my memory, remove this burden from my soul. Pay the money without delay.”
The sons, utterly astonished and convinced they had heard their father’s voice, fell to their knees and promised to fulfill his request. They returned to their home with Eesara, counted out the forty thousand rupees, and even provided him with a mule to carry away the heavy load.
The Betrayal
Eesara, elated by the success of their scheme, completely forgot about his partner still hidden in the grave. Securing the money in saddlebags and mounting the mule, he hastily departed from the town.
Meanwhile, Caneesara grew increasingly uncomfortable in his cramped hiding place. “Why hasn’t Eesara returned?” he wondered. Unable to bear the confinement any longer, he broke out of his earthen prison and entered the town.
At the merchants’ house, he inquired about Eesara and learned that his partner had collected the debt and left. “There he goes,” they said, pointing to a distant figure on a mule climbing a nearby hill.
“So Eesara is abandoning me,” Caneesara realized, and immediately set off in pursuit.
The Shoe Trick
As Eesara rode along, feeling quite pleased with himself, he noticed a handsome gold-embroidered shoe lying in the road. Considering himself too wealthy now to bother with a single shoe, however fine, he continued on his way without stopping.
When Caneesara came upon the shoe, he picked it up. A clever idea struck him. Taking a shortcut through the rocks, he raced ahead of Eesara and placed the shoe in the middle of the road, then hid himself in a nearby bush.
Soon Eesara came around a bend and spotted the shoe. “Look!” he exclaimed. “Here’s the match to the shoe I passed earlier—the same pattern and everything.” Dismounting, he tied his mule to the very bush where Caneesara was hiding and hurried back to retrieve what he thought was the shoe’s mate.
The moment Eesara disappeared from view, Caneesara emerged from his hiding place, mounted the mule with its precious cargo, and galloped away.
Eesara, of course, searched in vain for the nonexistent matching shoe. When he returned to find his mule gone, he immediately understood what had happened. “Caneesara has been here!” he exclaimed, and began the long walk back to his village.
The Hidden Treasure
Caneesara reached home in the middle of the night. Without alerting any neighbors, he unloaded the mule and drove it into the forest. Then he and his wife carried the bags of money into their house and buried them beneath the mud floor. Fearing a confrontation with Eesara, Caneesara left home again, instructing his wife to tell no one of his return.
When Eesara finally arrived at his own house, he related his adventures to his wife. “Caneesara has taken the money,” he concluded, “and I’m certain he’s buried it in his house.”
The following night, Eesara’s wife invited Caneesara’s wife for a visit. While the women were occupied, Eesara slipped into his partner’s empty house and successfully unearthed the money. He restored the floor to its original condition, then took the treasure to his own home and buried it beneath his floor. Afterward, he hid himself in an abandoned dry well, arranging for his wife to bring him food at the same time each day.
The Final Move
Eventually, Caneesara ventured to return home. Choosing a suitable moment, he began digging up his floor, occasionally pausing to laugh with his wife about how cleverly he had outwitted Eesara. His laughter soon turned to dismay when he discovered the money was gone. “Eesara has been here!” he cried, throwing down his spade in frustration. “Instead of searching for the money, I must now search for Eesara himself.”
Caneesara began watching Eesara’s house day and night. He noticed that Eesara’s wife left home at the same time each day, and suspected she might be taking food to her husband. Following her at a safe distance, he tracked her to the old well. From behind a boulder, he observed her lowering bread and buttermilk on a string, then retrieving the empty vessel after a brief conversation with someone below.
“Aha!” Caneesara chuckled to himself. “Eesara is hiding in that well! But where has he hidden the money?”
And so the battle of wits between the two partners continued, each man constantly trying to outsmart the other in their endless cycle of trickery and deception.
This tale reminds us that cleverness without honesty leads only to an endless cycle of mistrust and retaliation. True prosperity comes not from deceiving others, but from honest partnership and fair dealing.
