The Magic Mirror
Once upon a time, there lived a husband and a wife deep inside a jungle. There cottage was far from any civilization. They led a very simple life. They used to collect honey and sell it for living.
One summer they collected a very large quantity of honey. The wife said looking at the pots “We have collected a lot of honey this summer.” The husband replied “I will go to the town tomorrow and will sell it. In return, I will get some essential items for us.”
So, early next day he left for town with the honey. The husband sold all his honey in the market. He got good money from it. After buying essential items he had some money left with him. So, he thought of buying some ornaments for his wife. He went to an ornament shop and bought different types of ornaments for her. The shopkeeper was very happy with the husband. He said to the husband “You are a good customer. Here is a special gift for you.” Then he handed him an object wrapped in a cloth. The husband thanked him and he left for his home.
When the husband reached home, he showed his wife all the things which he had bought for her. The wife was very happy. She exclaimed with delight ” OOOOO! bangles, earrings, anklets! how beautiful they are. Thank you so much.” But, the husband kept the shopkeeper’s gift to himself.
When he was alone he opened the package and looked inside. “It is a picture of my father. How lucky I am, that I have a picture of my father,” he said to himself and he carefully hid the picture.
Everyday, there after he used to take the object out of its hiding place and had a look at it and said “Bless me, father. May everything goes well today.”
Seeing this for few days the wife became suspicious. She thought “He goes to that corner every morning. I wonder what he has got there? I need to investigate.” So, as soon as the husband left for work the next day, the wife went to the corner to investigate.
She looked among his thing and found the object. She looked at it and saw that it was a picture of a beautiful girl. She started crying “Oh! no wonder he hides it from me.” She became very sad and sat down in a corner and cried.
In the evening, the husband returned from work and asked the wife to serve the food. “I am very hungry. Give me dinner.”
“I have not cooked for you today and I will never cook for you again,” the wife replied angrily. The husband was confused. He said “What is this? Who will cook food if you are not going to cook?”
“Go and ask the girl whose picture you look at every morning,” replied the wife. Hearing this the husband became very angry and said ” What girl? Have you gone mad? It is my father’s picture that I worship every morning.” The wife started to cry and said ” That is a lie. I have seen the girl’s picture myself.”
The husband argued and said ” Nonsense, let me show you my father’s picture.”
The husband went to the corner and brought the object to his wife. As he was showing the object to his wife, they happened to look at it at the same time. They saw themselves in the object. After looking the husband said to his wife “Is that the woman you saw? It is you silly!” “And that is not your father. It is you,” said the wife. And they both started to laugh.
The wife looking and admiring herself said “So this wonderful object shows the face of whoever looks at it. It is just like magic.”
The object, the Mirror, became their most prized possession.
The End