Class 9 NCERT Solutions English Chapter 4 - In The Kingdom Of Fools

The two strange things the guru and his disciple found in the Kingdom of Fools was that everyone including the cattle slept during the day and worked at night. They awoke at night and went about their nightly business. To their amazement they also found that everything cost a single duddu wether it was a measure of rice or a bunch of bananas.

The disciple decided to stay in the Kingdom of Fools because he was delighted that everything cost a single duddu and everything was very cheap. All that he wanted was good and very cheap food.

According to the Guru, staying there was not a good idea as they were all fools and so he felt this situation would not last long and was not sure about what they would do in the future.

The people who are tried in the king’s court are the rich merchant who owned the house, the poor bricklayer, the dancing girl who is now an old woman and the goldsmith.

The reason for the trial is that the wall of the old house of the merchant had collapsed on a thief while he had tried to break through the wall and escape with the loot. The thief’s brother wanted justice done. The merchant was accused because his weak wall had murdered the man and so he had to be punished. He however claimed innocence and said that he had not built the wall but the person who should be blamed was the bricklayer. The bricklayer was then called to the trial for building a weak wall but he in turn pleaded that it was not his fault because he had been distracted while building the wall by a dancing girl who kept dancing up and down the street jingling her anklets. The dancing girl was then called to the trial for distracting the bricklayer but she explained that she  had given some gold to the goldsmith to make her some jewellery but he was lazy and made her walk to his house several times. The king then summoned the goldsmith as he was responsible for making the girl walk up and down several times. He blamed it on the merchant who said that he had an order from a rich merchant and so could not complete the girls work in time.

The real culprit according to the king is the merchant because although his old father was the real murderer he was dead and someone had to be punishment in his place.

He escapes the punishment because he is too thin to be properly executed on the stake.

The guru’s words of wisdom are that they are all fools and this kingdom of fools would not last long and nobody can tell what will happen next. The disciple remembers these words when he was being carried to the place of execution to be executed on the stake. He then prays to his guru in his heart, asking him to hear his cry, wherever he was.

The guru manages to save his disciples life by starting a fight about who should go first on the stake. The king gets puzzled by this behaviour and asks the guru why he wants to die first. He takes him aside, out of the servants’ earshot, and whispers to him that they have been all over the world but have never found a city like theirs or a king like him. The stake is the stake of the god of justice. It’s new, it has never had a criminal on it. Whoever dies on it first will be reborn as the king of this country. And whoever goes next will be the future minister of the country. They were both sick of their ascetic lives and wanted to enjoy themselves as king and The king is now thrown into deep thought. He doesn’t want to lose the kingdom to someone else in the next round of life. He needed time. So he ordered the execution postponed to the next day and talked in secret with his minister. That night, the king and his minister went secretly to the prison, released the guru and the disciple, disguised themselves as the two, and as arranged beforehand with loyal servants, were taken to the stake and promptly executed. In this way the wise old guru managed to save his disciple’s life.