Diamond Cut Diamond (fairy tale)

Lore & Background

The tale follows a merchant who, after years of poverty, grows rich in a distant region and decides to return home. A man warns him that the road is beset by thieves, so the merchant leaves his box of jewels with the man until he can fetch his own family. When he returns, the man denies ever receiving the box and throws the merchant out of the shop.

Reader's Guide

Kooshy Ram sees the merchant sitting on the road and learns what happened. He tells the merchant to return the next day and ask for his box when given a signal. While the merchant waits, a palanquin arrives and a lady asks the man to keep her boxes of jewels safe. During the conversation, the merchant receives the signal and demands his box. The man, fearing that denying custody would make him appear dishonest and lose the lady's business, hands over the box. The merchant begins to dance in the street. A message then arrives that the lady's husband has returned, so she no longer needs to deposit her jewels. Kooshy Ram bursts out of the palanquin and joins the merchant in dancing. The man also joins them. Someone remarks that the merchant danced because he recovered his jewels, and Kooshy Ram because he tricked the man, but the man himself had no reason to dance. The man replies that he thought he had learned every way to trick people, but now he knows another.

Did You Know?

• Andrew Lang included the tale in The Olive Fairy Book (1907).
• The story was collected by Major Campbell in Ferozepur.
• The tale is described as a Punjabi story.
• The title 'Diamond Cut Diamond' refers to one trickster outwitting another.