The King and the Three Perfectionists

Three Perfectionists: Once there lived a rich Brahmin called Vishnuswamin, who was performing a huge sacrificial rite. He had three sons, each very particular about certain things. The eldest was picky about food, the second about women, and the third about beds.

Vishnuswamin needed a tortoise for his sacrifice, so he sent his three sons to get one. They did find a tortoise, but each refused to touch it and bring it back home, claiming their fastidiousness was greater than the others.

To settle the matter, they approached the king. The king decided to test them all. He invited the first son to a very special feast prepared with great care. But the eldest son refused to touch the food, claiming he smelled burnt corpses in the rice. Upon investigation, the king discovered that the rice grains were from a field near a cremation ground. The king was impressed.

Next, the king tested the second son by sending a very beautiful woman to him. However, the second son sent her away, saying she smelled like a goat. Upon investigation, the king found out she had been fed goat milk as a child. The king was impressed again.

Then, the king tested the third son by letting him sleep in a bed with seven huge mattresses. In the middle of the night, the third son awoke with a lot of pain and a red mark on his shoulder. Upon checking, they found a piece of hair in the bed below the seven mattresses.

The king was impressed with all three and couldn’t decide who was the most fastidious, so he decided to use the skills of all three in his court and hired them. Thus, Vishnuswamin could not complete his sacrifice.

Now the question: “Who among the three is the most fastidious?”

Ans: “The third son, as he had definite evidence with that red mark. The other two could have obtained information from elsewhere too.”

PS: Fastidiousness is a quality of caring a lot about how accurate or tidy things are.

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