There was once a Raja and his dewan and they each had one son; these sons were married in infancy but as they grew up they never heard anything about their having been married.  When the boys reached manhood and found no arrangements being made for their weddings they began to wonder at the delay and often talked about it, and in the end they agreed to run away to another country.  Soon after this resolve of theirs some horse dealers came to their home with horses to sell; the two youths at once saw that if they could each have a horse and learn to ride it, it would be easy for them to run away from home.  So they hurried to their fathers and begged them to buy them each one of the beautiful horses which the dealers had brought.  The Raja and the dewan did not like to disappoint their sons so they bought the horses, to the great delight of the boys, who used to ride them every day.

One day the Raja’s son was out riding by himself and he passed by a tank where a number of women and girls were bathing and drawing water; as he came galloping along the women ran back in a fright; and as they could not draw their water while he was there, an old woman came up to him and told him to go away and not stay making eyes at the girls as if he had no wife of his own:  “What wife have I?”, said the prince, “I know nothing of having been married.”  “You were married sure enough when you were an infant,” replied the old woman:  “your wife is still in her father’s house, but now that you have grown up they will probably bring her home to you this year.”

Then the prince asked where his wife lived and having learnt the name of the village he galloped off home and at once began to question his mother about his marriage; his mother told him that they intended to have the bride brought home that year, but the prince was impatient and proposed that he should go off at once to his father-in-law’s and see his wife, and try to persuade them to let her come back with him without any ceremony; his mother made no objection, so he got ready for the journey and started off on horseback.  He had not gone far when he saw a field of thatching grass on fire, and in the middle, surrounded by the flames, was a huge poisonous snake, unable to escape.

As the prince rode by, the snake called out to him “Prince, you are going joyously to bring home your bride, and here am I in danger of being burned alive; will you not have pity on me and save me?  If you do I will confer a boon on you.”  “But if I save you,” objected the prince, “you will only eat me:  snakes do not know what gratitude is.”  “I am not of that kind,” answered the snake:  “here I am in danger of death, I beseech you to have pity on me.”  These pleadings prevailed and the prince got off his horse and beat out the fire and then spread a cloth over the embers so that the snake could crawl out.  When the snake was safe the prince asked for the boon that had been promised him:  “No boon will you get” said the snake:  “you did a foolhardy thing in saving me, for now I am going to eat you, and you cannot escape from me.”