As usual, Betaal started another story. There was a village named Chandanpur. There lived an old woman, who had a young son named Dagdoo.
The old lady used to do embroidery work to earn her livelihood. Dagdoo was a useless boy who did not do any work at all; the only work he ever did was eating, sleeping and dreaming.
But, it happened that whatever he dreamt turned out to be true.Everyone hated him because of the way he said things, and they all felt that he had a black tongue. Once he dreamt of a marriage procession being robbed and the bridegroom being beaten up. He started screaming and woke up.
When his mother asked him what happened, he told her that he had dreamt of a wedding party being looted and the groom being beaten up.
His mother scolded him for such an inauspicious dream. Just then a lady came to pick up the dress that she had given her to embroider.
Dagdoo asked her whose dress it was. She replied that she had had it made it for her daughter-in-law, whom her son was bringing home from his in-laws house that day.
Dagdoo then asked if he was going to ride on a horse. When she said yes, he told her to get the doctor ready, as her son and daughter-in-law were going to be robbed by the robbers and they would loot everything and also beat them up. The lady was very angry at Dagdoo and yelled at him for always thinking bad things about others. Dagdoo’s mother was also very upset with him. But Dagdoo’s dream turned out to be true.
The lady came back and dragged Dagdoo to the centre of the village, screaming that he must be associated with the robbers, otherwise how would he know what was going to happen. She told everyone to beat him. Hearing her story, everyone beat him up.
Later Dagdoo dreamt of Choudhary’s new house on fire by a curtain that caught fire from a lamp, just when the Choudhary family was hosting a housewarming party. Dagdoo leapt up screaming that it was all burnt up. Just then Choudhrayin came to his house to give them some ladoos.When Dagdoo asked her what they were for, she said that they had built a new house. Dagdoo told her that her house was going to catch fire.
Choudhrayin got so angry over Dagdoo’s black tongue that she left immediately, cursing him loudly. Dagdoo’s mother slapped him for this.
But Dagdoo’s dream came true, and Choudhary’s house was burnt down due to a curtain catching fire. Choudhrayin was so angry with Dagdoo, that she went after him, painted his face black, made him wear a garland of shoes and forced him to sit on a donkey in public.
Later, he was thrown out of the village. Dagdoo did not understand as to why the truth was so bitter to everyone. He wandered in the jungle here and there. Just as he was getting tired, he lied down under a tree, went off to sleep, and as usual started dreaming. He saw a King in his dream; and just then the king’s men woke him up.
When Dagdoo woke up, he saw the King in front of him. Dagdoo told him about his dream and said that his dreams were always true. He then asked the King to take him into his service.
The king said that he needed a guard for his palace, but for that he would have to stay awake all night. Dagdoo agreed that he would be awake like an owl and give the best of his service.
So Dagdoo got the job of night guard. At night, while he was on duty, just as the lights went out, he also went off to sleep, thinking that if the king had gone off to sleep, his subjects must also go off to sleep.
Meanwhile, in the palace, before going to sleep, the king asked the queen to wake him up early, as he was to go to Shonpur the next day.As soon as Dagdoo went off to sleep, he started dreaming. He saw that an earthquake had struck Shonpur. Just as Dagdoo woke up, he saw the king getting ready to go out.
When he came to know that the king was leaving for Shonpur, he stopped him from going and told him that an earthquake was going to happen in Shonpur. The queenstopped him from going.The king got a message that an earthquake had struck Shonpur and everyone living there had died.
The King was happy that he did not go as he had planned. He immediately called for Dagdoo. The King then asked Dagdoo how he knew about the earthquake. Dagdoo told him about his dream. The King then rewarded Dagdoo with a jeweled necklace for saving his life.
Then he sacked Dagdoo from his job. Saying this, Betaal stopped and asked King Vikramaditya what was the reason that the king rewarded Dagdoo and then threw him out. As usual, he forced Vikram to reply or else he would behead him.
Vikram replied that the king was very happy that Dagdoo saved his life and so rewarded him, but threw him out of his job because he had seen the earthquake in a dream, which meant that he had been sleeping while he was on duty as a night guard of the palace, and the king realized that Dagdoo was not diligent in his duty, and so he sacked him.Betaal once again was happy with Vikram’s intelligence but as he had opened his mouth, Betaal once again flew away…
