The Cat who Ate the Kheer

This wonderful story is contributed from the Marathi by Prof. Smita Pawaskar. You can read about the delicious pudding called kheer at Wikipedia.

This would be classified as ATU 15, Stealing the Partner's Butter.

THE CAT WHO ATE THE KHEER

(kheer ingredients)

A sparrow, a monkey and a cat used to live together in a small hovel. They scrounged for food and were happy enough.

One day the cat said to the other two, “Let’s make some kheer. Monkey, you go get some jaggery. Sparrow, you bring the rice, even if you have to make fifty trips. And I’ll get the milk.”

The others thought this was an excellent idea. The monkey brought a lump of jaggery. The sparrow brought the rice even though it took her fifty trips.  The cat stole a cup of milk and the monkey brought some water in a large earthenware pot from a pond nearby.

Then the cat heated everything in a saucepan. As the kheer cooked, it smelled delicious. When it was nearly ready, the cat told the others to go and have a dip in the pond. The kheer would be ready when they got back.

As soon as they were gone, the cat gobbled up all the kheer. She couldn’t resist it. Then she put the lid back on the saucepan, covered herself with a blanket and pretended to be sick.

“What’s wrong?” the others asked when they returned.

“I don’t feel very well,” moaned the cat.

“Sorry,” said the others. “Where is the kheer?”

“In the saucepan,” replied the cat.

When they looked in the saucepan, they found that all the kheer was gone.

“What happened to the kheer?” they asked the cat.

“Someone must have stolen it,” groaned the cat, “while you were gone.”

“We were only gone a minute,” Monkey protested. He began to suspect that the cat had gobbled up the kheer and was only pretending to be sick.

“There’s only one way to find out,” he told the other two. “We’ll take this earthen vessel, and float it on the pond upside down. Then we’ll each take a turn at balancing on top.  Anyone who has eaten the kheer is bound to be heavy, and that will make the pot sink.”

The cat had to agree to the test.

The monkey went first. The pot floated, the monkey sat on it and then jumped off.

The sparrow stood on it next and flew off with no trouble at all.

It was the cat’s turn. She was afraid she would be caught. She did her best to balance on the pot; but she trembled and quaked so much that the pot overturned and sank and so did the cat.

And that was the end of the poor, greedy, kheer-eating cat.


Here is a video of the story told in Marathi: