The king always used to put up challenges before his ministers in order to know their abilities and smartness. Gonu Jha always impressed the king with his logical and witty responses. On one such day, the king decided to test his ministers and put before them a challenge. The king granted a cat and a buffalo to each of the ministers and asked them to feed it well for a year. And after the completion of one year all cats will be brought and seen whose cat is fattest. And the caretaker of the fattest cat will be appointed as chairman of charities department and will be awarded prize. Everyone returned to their home with a cat and a buffalo and started feeding the cat with the milk of buffalo they were granted.
Gonu Jha was not different in his ways and he too started feeding the cat with buffalo’s milk. After few days it started getting boring to feed the buffalo all day long and then milking it to feed the cat. This also started tension with his wife who was not in favor of wasting all day in stupidity. One day frustrated with all of these daily chores his wife started rushing to Gangasagar to commit suicide by drowning; “If my life will be consumed feeding this cat then I am done and going to Gangasagar to die,” said Gonu’s wife. I too am unhappy with this daily routine of taking the buffalo to graze and feed the cat every day,” said Gonu Jha. He assured his wife that he will try to solve the issue and told her to boil the milk. Irritated Gonu’s wife went to kitchen to boil the milk. She brought the seething milk and gave to Gonu Jha. Without any delay GonuJha served the hot and fuming milk to the cat. As soon as the cat licked milk it ran away mewing. GonuJha and his wife repeated the same tactics for a week and when the cat stopped coming near to the milk after few days they started having the milk themselves every day. The cat was thereafter fed on the remains like rice after the couple were full.
Soon one year completed and the day came when all contestants were presented before king with their respective cats. Everyone’s cat was looking fat and healthy but that of Gonu Jha appeared sickly. All became happy seeing the lean and thin cat of Gonu Jha with a hope that he will be punished and thrown out of the kingdom. “Gonu Jha, while everyone’s cat is well fed, fat and healthy why your cat is moribund? Did not you feed it milk well?” asked the king to Gonu Jha. “There has been some conspiracy with my cat. I have managed to keep it alive by feeding it rice and pulse. The cat which was given to me did not even come near to milk, so I left the thought of feeding it on milk,” said GonuJha. “Lord, it seems fishy. A cat and repellent to milk seems to be a wonder,” said a contestant out of suspicion. The king agreed to the contestant and ordered to taste the same by serving the cat with milk boul. As soon as the milk bowl was kept in front of the cat, it ran away while every other cat was popping milk fondly.
Gonu Jha was announced the winner but the king was sure of his clever tricks and requested him to tell how he did that. Gonu jha narrated how he did that and everybody was in amazement. The king again became Gonu’s fan and was entrusted with the responsibility of Charity Department.
(Based on a Nepali folk tale from Tarai region.)