Washing the Black Dog

King Krishnadevaraya was a very busy man, and one morning he overslept. He had no time for a shave before court. But when he woke, he found that his barber had come in quietly while he slept and shaved him so gently and skilfully that he hadn’t even woken up.

The king was delighted. “What a marvellous barber! Ask for any reward, and it is yours.”

The barber thought big. “Your Majesty, make me a minister.”

The king had given his word. “Very well,” he said, though he wasn’t sure it was wise. “From tomorrow, you shall be a minister.”

The ministers were horrified. A barber, giving advice on wars and taxes and treaties? They begged the king to change his mind, but he would not break his promise. In despair, they went to Tenali Raman.

The next morning, on the way to court, the king passed the river and saw a strange sight. There was Tenali Raman, standing knee-deep in the water, scrubbing a big black dog with soap and a brush. The dog looked thoroughly fed up.

“Tenali! What on earth are you doing?”

“I am washing this dog white, Your Majesty,” said Tenali, scrubbing harder. “I have heard that it is possible to make anything into anything else, if one only wishes hard enough. So I am going to make this black dog into a white one.”

“Don’t be absurd,” said the king. “A black dog is black. You can wash it all day and all night, and it will still be a black dog. A dog doesn’t become a different dog just because you want it to.”

“Just as a barber doesn’t become a minister overnight, Your Majesty?” said Tenali, without looking up.

The king stopped. He looked at the dog, and then at Tenali, and the point sank in.

“He is a fine barber,” the king said slowly. “Perhaps the finest in the land. And a fine barber is a wonderful thing to be. But a minister needs years of learning and experience.”

He rode on to court, called for the barber, and spoke to him kindly. Instead of making him a minister, he gave him a bag of gold, a fine house, and the title of Royal Barber of Vijayanagara, with the right to wear a gold chain at court. The barber, who had been terrified of all the work a minister has to do, was more than happy.

And the black dog, who had been washed for nothing, got a large bone from the palace kitchens to make up for it.