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53. A FAIRY EXPOSED
Once a man was going in a bullock cart along with his wife. As they were travelling, the wife got off to answer the call of nature. While she was away, a certain fairy living in that region saw the handsome man and felt a passionate desire for him. She quickly changed herself into the shape and form of his wife and got into the cart. As the cart started to proceed on its way, the man's wife came and she saw another woman looking exactly like herself, sitting next to her husband. But she followed the cart, asking her husband to pick her up but the fairy said to the man that she must be a fairy residing in that locality and suggested that he should goad the bullocks to go faster. The real wife of the man did not stop following the cart, still shouting and crying. The man was confused. He slowed down and the wife and the fairy began shouting at each other and a quarrel ensued.
However, he took both the women to the next village. They all went to the village council for justice. The man was confused and would not know which was his wife but chose to remain silent. The chief of the council told the man to stand at a certain distance from the two women. He turned round to the women and told them that whoever of them touched the man first with her hand would be considered his wife. The fairy stretched out her hand unusually long and fast and touched him first. The council quickly concluded that
was the fairy and drove her out. The other woman was restored to her husband.
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