From Rags to Riches

A poor man of Buneyr, unable to support himself in his native mountains, set out for Hindustan to seek his fortune and there rose to the rank of Nawab.

One of his poor relatives, hearing of his good fortune, was determined to visit him. So he went to the bazaar and, with a few annas, bought one pound of sugar as a neighbourly present for his former acquaintance.

After a long journey, he arrived at the palace and found the Nawab in the midst of his fine friends. But though he winked, nodded, and beckoned to him to step aside for a friendly greeting and to receive his pound of sugar, his efforts to engage the great man’s attention were quite unsuccessful.

At last, perceiving that his unwelcome visitor was about to open his mouth, the Nawab said to one of his attendants, “Conduct this poor stranger to my storeroom, where my bags of sugar are laid up, and there let him sit down and eat his fill.”

Then he sent a letter to his native village, sternly forbidding any more of his poor, ill-clad kinsmen to trouble him with their objectionable presence.

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Source: Folktales of the Upper Indus