Story Summary
Discover the mind-bending Vikram and Betaal story of The Father and Son, where a simple pact about footprints leads to an impossible riddle of kinship and logic.
King Vikramaditya once again retrieved the Betaal from the ancient tree and began his silent trek. Betaal began: In a kingdom long ago, a King and his son were hunting in a forest when they spotted two sets of footprints—one large and one small. They decided the King would marry the woman with the larger feet and the Prince would marry the woman with the smaller feet. When they found the women, they discovered the large feet belonged to a beautiful daughter and the small feet to her mother. Bound by their oath, the King married the daughter and the Prince married the mother. As years passed, children were born to both couples. Betaal stopped and asked, 'O King, what is the relationship between the children of these two families?' Vikramaditya remained silent, realizing that the web of kinship had become so tangled that no name for the relationship existed in any language.
The Moral
Rash decisions based on superficial assumptions can lead to complex and unsolvable complications in life.
“Relationships are not defined by footprints, but by the paths we choose to walk together.”
Fun Fact
This story is often cited in logic and kinship studies as one of the oldest examples of a 'kinship paradox' in world literature.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the moral of The Father and Son?
The story illustrates how acting on assumptions without full knowledge can lead to bizarre outcomes. It warns against making life-altering promises based on superficial evidence.
What was the riddle Betaal asked Vikram?
Betaal asked what the kinship relationship was between the children born to the two couples. The father had married the daughter, and the son had married the mother.
Why did the father and son marry the wrong women?
They mistakenly assumed that larger footprints belonged to the mother and smaller ones to the daughter. In reality, the physical sizes were reversed, leading to a cross-generational marriage.
Who are Vikram and Betaal?
King Vikramaditya is a legendary Indian monarch known for justice, while Betaal is a ghost-like being who challenges the King's wisdom through complex stories.
Is there a solution to the kinship riddle?
There is no standard term for the relationship, as the mother became the daughter-in-law and the daughter became the mother-in-law, creating a genealogical paradox.
Why does Vikramaditya stay silent at the end of this tale?
Vikram stays silent because he truly cannot find a logical answer to the complex relationship riddle, or because he knows that answering would allow Betaal to escape once more.
