THREE QUESTIONS

1. What were the three questions that occurred to the king?

What did he do get the answers to his questions?
Answers – The king was inquisitive and very dutiful in nature. He was
weighed down by the onerous royal responsibilities, and couldn’t hope to
lead an ordinary man’s life. He wondered if he could simplify his
responsibilities. One day, he pondered over three questions. The first one
was finding a way to figure out the opportune time to commence every
work. At second place, he wanted to figure out the people whose
company he should shun. The third, but probably the most significant
one, was the way of developing the prescience to prioritize his actions
according to their significance.
2. What answers did the wise men give to his first question?
Answer – To the first question, the wise man gave various convoluted
answers. Some of them counseled the king to plan out the future and act
in accordance with that. Some others spoke rather confidently that
predicting the future was beyond the realms of anybody’s intellect. They
advised the king to treat all situations equally and selectively pick his
conducts. Meanwhile, some others were adamant that the king alone
would never be able to correctly time his actions on his own. They
recommended him to enjoy his luxury and form a council of wise men
that would help him to be calculative. Reaching out to magicians for help
in future prediction came in as the most absurd answer at last.
3. How did the wise men answer his second question?
Answer – The second question was comparatively simpler than the first
one. The wise men present before the king suggested to him what they
thought to be most judicious according to their life experiences. The king
was told that the counselors, doctors, priests and warriors were the best
people to repose his trust on.
4. What answers did the king get for his third question?
Answer – The third question, like the two other questions, was open to
multitude of interpretations and opinions. The intellectuals, reaching their
differing conclusions, suggested occupations such as science, religious
worship and prowess in warfare.
5. Why did he decide to consult a hermit?
Answer – The plethora of conflicting answers confused the king and he
wasn’t content with any of them. The quest to satisfy his curiosity made
him reach out to a sagacious hermit.
6. Where did the King meet the hermit? How did the hermit
receive the King?
Answer – The king, stripped himself of his apparel, guards, ride, and made
his way into the hermit’s dwelling. The hermit was devoid of any reaction
which indicates his complete disregard for the king disguised as a
commoner.
7. How did the King help the hermit?
Answer – The king noticed the frail-looking hermit toiling hard and
decided to give him some relief. He asked the hermit to take a break and
started digging the earth himself with a shovel.
8. How did the King nurse the wounded stranger?
Answer – The stranger was in excruciating pain with blood exuding
steadily from his wounded body. The king took pity on his misery and
immediately came to his rescue. Having freed the man from his tight
clothing, he attempted to sterilize the spot of injury by washing away the
blood. He repeated that procedure until the flow of blood subsided and
finally bandaged the wound to conceal it. He also provided the man water
to quench his thirst.
9. Why did the wounded person desire to serve the King as his
most faithful slave?
Answer – The wounded person, driven by vengeance, had set out to
assassinate the king. The unexpected turn of events flipped the fortune in
the king’s favour and the man fell victim to his own trap. Coincidentally,
the king became the man’s saviour when he was hovering between life
and death. The man, having realized the king’s act of generosity, felt
immense guilt for harbouring malice for him in the past. In an attempt to
redeem himself of the guilt, he expressed his desire to serve the king
obsequiously.
10. How did the hermit answer the king’s questions?
Answer – The hermit wanted the king to experience the truth on his own.
Once the man was gone the king reminded him about his questions. The
hermit, in response, put it shrewdly that the answers had already been
given. He outlined the incidents of the two days that the king had been
there and pointed out that the present is the only moment that matters,
the person with whom an individual is at the given moment matters the
most and attending to him/her is the individual’s highest priority.
11. Was the king satisfied with the hermit’s answers? Give a
reasoned answer.
Answer – The intellectuals had all let him down. He had turned to the
hermit as his final resort. The emancipated mystic had put the gospel
before him through practicality. The king no longer needed to depend on
anybody to provide him the answer for it had already been understood by
him. Rationally thinking, there shouldn’t be a grain of dissatisfaction in
the king with regard to the hermit’s answers.

Q1. Why was the king advised to go to magicians?

Ans. According to some of the wise men who came to answer the king’s three questions,
the king needed to look into the future to decide what is the right time to begin and only
magicians could do that. This is why the king was advised to go to magicians.
Q2. In answer to the second question, whose advice did the people say would be
important to the king?
Ans. In answer to the second question, some wise men said that the advice of the
councillors was the most important to the king. However, some wise men said that the
priests were more important. There were two more answers to this question. Some chose
doctors while some chose soldiers.
Q3. What suggestions were made in answer to the third question?
Ans. There were three suggestions which were made in answer to the third question. Some
chose science, some chose fighting while a few others chose religious worship.
Q4. Did the wise men win the reward? If not, why not?
Ans. No, the wise men didn’t win the reward because their answers were varied and all
were equally wise. The king was not satisfied by the responses as he got confused by them.
Q5. How did the king and the hermit help the wounded man?
Ans. The king and the hermit removed the bearded man’s clothing. After that, they found a
large wound in his stomach, from which the blood was flowing. The king washed the wound
and covered it with his handkerchief in order to stop the bleeding. However, this didn’t
work. Next, the king re-dressed the wounds. Then, the bleeding stopped. After a while, the
wounded man regained consciousness. He asked for something cool to drink. The king
brought fresh water and gave it to the man.
This is how the king and the hermit helped the wounded man.
Q6. (i) Who was the bearded man?
(ii) Why did he ask for the king’s forgiveness?
Ans. (i) The bearded man was an enemy of the king. The king had once seized his property
and also even put his brother to death. Since then, the bearded man had sworn revenge on
the king.
(ii) The bearded man decided to kill the king when he would come back from the hermit’s
hut. However, a lot of time had passed and the king wasn’t back yet. The bearded man
came out of his hiding place and met the king’s bodyguard, who injured him. The bearded
man ran and came to the king. However, instead of punishing him or leaving him aside, the
king helped the man, even though the man’s aim was to injure the king. This made him
realise that the king is a good person. This is the reason why the bearded man asked for the
king’s forgiveness.
Q7. The king forgave the bearded man. What did he do to show his forgiveness?
Ans. The king forgave the bearded man and even promised him two things. One, he
promised that he would send servants and his own doctor to look after him. Second, he
promised to return the seized property to him. He promised these two things in order to
show his forgiveness.
Q8. What were the hermit’s answers to the three questions? Write each answer
separately. Which answer do you like most, and why?
Ans. The first question was – what is the right time to begin something? According to the
hermit, the right time to do anything is ‘now’, which is also known as present. It is the most
important time as it is the only time when we have the power to act or to begin something.
The second question was – who should we listen to? According to the hermit, we should
pay attention to the person we are with, as no one knows what will happen in the future
and whether we’ll meet anyone else in our entire life.
The third question was – what is the most important thing for us to do? According to the
hermit, the most important thing is to do good to the person we are with at the particular
moment as that is the particular reason why we were sent into this world.