In the Kingdom of Fools Summary Class 9 | Notes | NCERT Solutions |
In the Kingdom of Fools Summary Class 9 | Notes | NCERT Solutions | Questions Answers |
In the Kingdom of Fools Summary
In the Kingdom of Fools Summary : This is a famous tale taken from A.K. Ramanujan’s ‘Folk Tales from India’. It revolves around a silly king and his moron minister who ordered the people of their small town to do things backwards, to consider day as night and vice versa and to sleep all day long and work during the night.
One day, a guru and his disciple came to the kingdom. They noticed that things had some different rules than usual. Everyone had to pay just one rupee for everything. The guru was happy at first because people could buy anything they wanted for just one rupee! But later, he knew it was a kingdom of fools where living a life was too easy, so he left the kingdom. His disciple didn’t want to leave because of all the good food he got for one rupee only.
One day, a thief made a hole in the wall of the house of a rich merchant. The thief was stealing things when something happened. The wall fell on him and he died. Then his brother went to the king and told him that the owner (merchant) should be punished for not building better walls. So, the king called the merchant to court.
The merchant was unhappy and blamed the bricklayer for the fall. The bricklayer told the king that he had been distracted by a girl who went to and fro wearing jingling anklets all day. The old woman who had been that girl before said that she had been delayed by the goldsmith, and that she had walked up and down his street several times while waiting for him to finish her necklace. Soon, the goldsmith was brought to the king’s court. He said he was busy with orders for rich people because of some wedding rituals in his family.
A merchant’s wall had collapsed on a thief. The king thought it wasn’t the same merchant whose wall had fallen. So, the king said he would punish the merchant for what his father had done. But, they found out that this merchant was too thin to fit onto the stake used for punishment. So, they started looking for someone who was fat enough to fit onto the stake and found an old disciple of this king who could be punished instead of the first merchant. But he was innocent, so he asked the king not to punish him. But the kingdom was full of fools. So no one listened to him.
The disciple was waiting to be executed. Suddenly, he remembered his guru’s words and asked the guru to help him. His guru who had magical powers could see in his vision that his disciple was in trouble and so he went to save him. The guru whispered something into the disciple’s ear and then asked the king to punish him instead of the disciple. However, when the disciple heard this, he asked for himself to be punished with a stake instead because he had been brought there for execution first.
The king was puzzled about who should die first. He asked the guru to help him solve this problem. The guru replied that whoever died first on the stake would be reborn as the future king of his kingdom. Whoever died second would become the next minister of his kingdom. The king did not want to lose his kingdom, so he talked with his minister and they decided that they would both go on the stake so they could stay there in their next life too.
The next morning, the disguised king and his minister were hanged. When the people in the kingdom saw that their king and minister had been executed, they made the guru and his disciple their new king and minister. The guru was hesitant at first, but he finally agreed to make changes in the kingdom. The people began leading a normal life like other kingdoms after this change.
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NCERT Solutions of In the Kingdom of Fools
Think about it
Question 1. What are the two strange things the guru and his disciple find in the Kingdom of Fools?
Answer: The strange things found by the guru and his disciple are:
- They notice that everyone sleeps during the day and work at night.
- They also notice that everything there costs the same of one duddu i.e. one rupee.
Question 2. Why does the disciple decide to stay in the Kingdom of Fools? Is it a good idea?
Answer: The disciple decides to put in the Kingdom of Fools for everything was too cheap in that kingdom and bought for a rupee. No, it was not a good choice made by him despite being warned by his guru that it was the Kingdom of Fools and it wouldn’t last long.
Question 3. Name all the people who are tried in the king’s court, and give the reasons for their trial.
Answer: The people who were sent for in the king’s court were: the merchant, the bricklayer, the dancing girl and the goldsmith.
- The merchant was tried because a burglar had died when the wall of the former’s house fell on him.
- The bricklayer was tried because the wall he built fell and killed the burglar.
- The dancing girl was tried because she made it hard for the bricklayer to work. She walked around on the road with jingling anklets and that made it hard for him to build a wall.
- The goldsmith was tried for not making jewelry for a girl. She had to go back many times to check if the order was ready.
- The merchant was not able to work on the dancing girl’s orders because he was too busy with the jewelry order of the merchant’s father.
Question 4. Who is the real culprit according to the king? Why does he escape punishment?
Answer: The real criminal was the merchant, said the king. The person that should be punished for this crime was the merchant because his father was already dead. The merchant managed to escape the punishment because he was too thin to be executed on a stake.
Question 5. What are the Guru’s words of wisdom? When does the disciple remember them?
Answer: The Guru’s words of wisdom were: “This is a city of fools. You don’t know what they will do next.” The disciple remembers them when he is ordered to be executed for he was fat enough to fit that stake. Though he did not do anything wrong yet he was going to be hanged on a stake.
Question 6. How does the guru manage to save his disciple’s life?
Answer: The disciple was waiting to be executed. Suddenly, he remembered his guru’s words and asked the guru to help him. His guru who had magical powers could see in his vision that his disciple was in trouble and so he went to save him. The guru whispered something into the disciple’s ear and then asked the king to punish him instead of the disciple. However, when the disciple heard this, he asked for himself to be punished with a stake instead because he had been brought there for execution first.
The king was puzzled about who should die first. He asked the guru to help him solve this problem. The guru replied that whoever died first on the stake would be reborn as the future king of his kingdom. Whoever died second would become the next minister of his kingdom. The king did not want to lose his kingdom, so he talked with his minister and they decided that they would both go on the stake so they could stay there in their next life too.
The next morning, the disguised king and his minister were hanged. This way, Guru’s words of wisdom saved his disciple’s life.
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