Retold by Luongporpra Mahasanom Chaweewanno เจ้าอาวาสวัดสง่างาม
Once upon a time, there was a couple who had a son. When the son was 15, the father died. The mother had to take care of the son alone. The son was very nice. He worked very hard and he took care of his mother very well. However, the woman was too weak, she became sick and died. The boy was extremely sad from the loss of his mother. Fortunately, the villagers were very kind to him, they helped him with the funeral of his mother.
The boy really loved and respected his mother. He put his parents’ bone on the top shelf in his room and paid homage to them every day. He would call their name at the meal time ,prepared the food ,set it for them ,as if they were still alive.
Indra felt something was wrong down in the earth. His seat was hot like fire. He knew by instinct that there must be someone who was in trouble. So Indra looked down and saw that there was a young man who had great love for the parents and he had no one left but his poverty. He could not stand the boy suffering ,so he came down to the earth disguises as an old woman ,begging for food.
The man was having breakfast and ready to go to work at the rice field when the old woman appeared and begged for some food. When the young man saw her he felt that this woman looked like his mother. He smiled at her and asked her gently.
“Where are you from, Grandma? What can I do for you?”
The old woman, who was actually Indra, replied;
“I’m very poor, I have no relatives so I' m begging. I just want something to eat.”
When the man heard that he said;
“Grandma, from now on, you don’t have to go begging around anymore. You can live with me. I will take care of you. What you should do is to watch my house while I ' am away to work.”
The man did as he promised. He took care of the old woman as if she was his mother. He cooked for her, filled up the bathing jar with water from the pond for her to bathe and talked to her nicely. He never offended her.
One day, the man went to the rice field as usual while the old woman stayed at home. It was the time for Indra to go back to heaven. Before he left he had filled up the empty house with gold and diamond and all kinds of valuable ornaments. When the man came back he was surprised to get no reply when he called the woman’s name. The man rushed in for he was so worried that the old woman would be in danger. He was even more surprised not to see her but a big pile of valuable things. However, he was not happy with what he saw, he thought that someone must have fooled him or planned to do something with bad a bad intention. And he still worried about the woman. He did not hesitate to inform the village’s leader about the things in his house. The village leader then announced to all villagers to come and see to find out whether the ornaments in the man's house were theirs or not. The villagers were very honest, no one claimed that the precious things belonged to them. And the leader also was a very nice man. When he could not find the owner of the property, he went to inform the noble man and the noble man asked his relatives and subordinates whether the property was theirs or not and nobody showed ownership. The noble man then went to see the king. When the king got the news, he ordered his soldier to bring the man to the palace. He asked the man to tell his background and what happened. The king knew by instinct that the man was such an honest person who was rewarded for his good deed from heaven. He told his subordinates to bring all the ornaments to the palace and appointed the man to be his adopted son. When the man turned 25, the king allowed him to marry the princess and they lived happily ever after.