Laila and Rama were lovers, but too poor to get married as yet. They lived in
different villages separated by a broad river that was infested with crocodiles.
One day Laila heard that her Rama was dangerously ill with no one to nurse him.
She rushed to the river bank and pleaded with the boatman to take her across even
though she did not have the money to pay him.
But the wicked boatman refused unless she agreed to sleep with him that night. The
poor woman begged and pleaded but to no avail so, in sheer desperation, she
consented to the boatman’s terms.
When she finally got to Rama she found him near to death. But she stayed with him
for a month and nursed him back to health. One day Rama asked how she had managed
to cross the river. Being incapable of lying to her beloved, she told him the
truth.
When Rama heard her tale he fell into a rage for he valued virtue more than life
itself. He drove her out of the house and refused to look at her again.
🙂
Laila and Rama were lovers, but too poor to get married as yet. They lived in
different villages separated by a broad river that was infested with crocodiles.
One day Laila heard that her Rama was dangerously ill with no one to nurse him.
She rushed to the river bank and pleaded with the boatman to take her across even
though she did not have the money to pay him.
But the wicked boatman refused unless she agreed to sleep with him that night. The
poor woman begged and pleaded but to no avail so, in sheer desperation, she
consented to the boatman’s terms.
When she finally got to Rama she found him near to death. But she stayed with him
for a month and nursed him back to health. One day Rama asked how she had managed
to cross the river. Being incapable of lying to her beloved, she told him the
truth.
When Rama heard her tale he fell into a rage for he valued virtue more than life
itself. He drove her out of the house and refused to look at her again.
🙂