The Sinhalese folklore from Sri Lanka contributes to the world of stories with some of its finest folktales. Among them, the stories of Andare take the lead as a series of funny stories among the folktales from around the world. The stories revolve around a court jester who was very intelligent, talented, and skilled in composing poetic verses as tools of amusement. Unlike many jesters, he was not a mere joker or a fool. He often outsmarted everyone else, including the king. Given this nature, anyone who is looking for bedtime stories for kids or folktales for kids may find these stories interesting and appropriate. Here you can enjoy the story of how Andare jumped into the well.
Once upon a time, there was a man called Andare. He was the court jester of the Sinhalese Kingdom of Kandy. He was wise, cunning, and made fun of others; he didn’t even care to make fun of the foolish thinking of the king himself. His pranks were not usually offensive, and even if someone took them offensively, he used his keen intelligence and talent to get away with them with dignity, amusing others, including the king.
He had a habit that his wife was not happy about. He used to come home very late at night. At first, his wife was not happy with him coming home so late. She expected his husband to come home early. She asked him to come home early but he didn’t seem to change his habit. Then something happened and it made the wife very angry.
One day, the queen wanted to meet the wife of her beloved jester. So, she asked him to arrange a meeting with his wife. Andare took the chance to do a prank on the queen and on his wife. The queen and the king had a good laugh but his wife was upset a little bit. She knew it was Andare being Andare and he didn’t mean disrespect. But she got mad at him.
One day after the prank on the queen and the wife, this trickster came home so late in the night, as usual. He knocked on the door and called her wife to open it. But the wife was angry at the prank he did. Now he is late. The wife got really angry at him. So, she thought of teaching her husband a lesson. She decided not to open the door. “Open up the door!” Andare shouted and banged on the door. But his wife wasn’t the one who opened it. After trying to convince his wife to open the door several times, he gave up trying. He realized his wife was serious and really mad at him.
Andare wanted to get her to open the door. And also, he wanted to do something about her anger. He walked towards the well in the garden. He picked up a big stone from the yard. Then he shouted, “I will jump into the well if you won’t open the door!”.
But his wife didn’t open the door. Then he dropped the stone into the well. It made a loud splash. Hearing that splash, his wife wondered if Andare really jumped into the well. She opened the door and came running towards the well. Seeing the ripples on the water, the wife thought Andare really jumped into the well. She shouted at the neighbors for help. The neighbors hurried to Andare’s place.
“My wife didn’t open the door. So, I jumped into the well.” Before his wife answered the neighbors, Andare answered from inside the house. While his wife was checking the well, he had gone into the house.
The neighbors realized this was another trick from the well-known prankster and left. The wife went back to the house. But Andare had locked the door from inside. The wife shouted and begged him to open the door. But he did not open the door. He repeated the same thing his wife told him. He asked his wife to stay outside till the sun came up.