← Literature & books Literature & books · Accessible English

Diamond Cut Diamond (fairy tale)

Indian fairy tale

2 min
estimated reading
3
complete sections
5.72
algorithmic grade estimate

Before you read

Use the article and the local dictionary together

The complexity label is calculated from sentence length and syllable estimates; it is guidance, not an assessment of you. Open any highlighted word below for its full local dictionary page.

Words
234
Native text
1484 characters
Dictionary match
83%
Revision
1323954844 · 2025-11-24T19:07:15Z
Key vocabulary

Words to check before reading

Overview

Diamond Cut Diamond is an Indian fairy tale. Andrew Lang included it in The Olive Fairy Book (1907), describing as a Punjabi story collected by Major Campbell in Feroshepore.

Summary

A merchant, after many years of poverty and hard work, moved to a distant region and grew rich. He decided to go home. A man told him that his road was beset by thieves, and the merchant left his box of jewels with him until he could get men of his own family to accompany him. When he returned, the man denied that it had ever happened, and threw him out of the shop. Kooshy Ram saw him sitting on the road, and asked him what had happened. Then he told him to go back the next day, and ask for his box when someone gave him a signal. While he was waiting, a palanquin arrived, and the man was told that a lady wished to leave her boxes of jewels with him, for safety. While the talk was still going on, the merchant received the signal and came to ask. The man decided that it would put off the lady, and handed over the box. The merchant started to dance in the street.

A message arrived that her husband had come, so she did not need to deposit the jewels after all. Then Kooshy Ram burst out of the palanquin and joined the merchant. Then the man joined them. Someone said that the merchant had recovered his jewels, that Kooshy Ram had tricked him, but that the man had no reason to dance. He said that he had thought he had learned every way to trick people, but now he knew another.

External links

*Diamond Cut Diamond

Literature & books

Continue with related local reading