Atal and the Jeweler

 Written by :meena Nazari

Once upon a time, a famous jeweler was living a big city. The jeweler was too old and he was not able to continue his job anymore. He decided to give his jewelry shop to some other jeweler. He held a competition for this purpose and invited many jewelers from the city among them were two boys, Atal, and Barialai too. The old jeweler selected Atal and Barialai and said that if anyone of them could bring the stones from the Black Mountain that have pieces of jewelry, then he would select him as his successor.

Atal and Barialai became happy and started their trip to the Black Mountain. Barialai said to Atal that Black Mountain is from the city but White Mountain is near and he suggested him to take some stones from the White Mountain but Atal denied and said that the old jeweler is an experienced man and they continued their way to the Black Mountain.

 They reached to a jungle in the evening. Meanwhile, they heard the voices of wolves that were coming toward them. Atal and Barialai were afraid and they climbed to a nearby tree and passed the whole night in the tree. In the morning, when they saw that the wolves had gone, they came down from the tree and reached the Black Mountain.

Atal was digging a big stone and Barialai was searching for other places. Meanwhile, Barialai slept from a big stone and he cried. Atal saw a big snake under the stone and he cried too. Barialai went near and he saw a big sake was going away. Barialai said that he does not want to find stones in the Black Mountain and he left Atal alone.

When Atal went back to the stone, he saw that somethings are shining under the stone. He took the shining stones with himself and went back to the city.

The next day, Atal and Barialai gave the stones that they had in their hands to the old man. The old jeweler appreciated Atal for honesty and accepted as his successor.