Idiom stories are such an interesting part of folklore, contributing to the house of folktales from around the world. Most of these folktales, or idiom stories, are appropriate as bedtime stories for kids. Some of them are ideal funny stories for kids. Most importantly, they are moral stories. However, a good story and a good storyteller can indeed light up a room. In that case, “Puhul Hora Karen Dene” is one of the idioms in Sinhalese culture from Sri Lanka that comes with an interesting backstory. This tale will provide the moral lesson you seek and the fun your kids look for, with a novel experience of Sri Lankan lifestyle a couple centuries ago.
Once upon a time, in Sri Lanka, there was a man called Gamarala. His wife was Gamahamine. They lived in Gamagedara, which was a simple mud-thatched house with rice straw roofing.
Gamarala was an innocent villager who made a living by farming. He was a hard-working farmer. He cultivated paddy, corn, peas, eggplants, lady fingers, cooking melon, and many more grains and vegetables. Every day, he woke up early in the morning and went to his paddy field or Chena cultivation to work in his cultivations. He was not a lazy person. He did his best to make a living out of farming. His family also helped him in his work and he lived a happy and simple life. He even helped others in the village as much as possible. He often gifted his harvest to those who were in need. Gamarala was really a good man.
One day Gamarala, while walking to his Chena early in the morning, saw a flower bud in an ash pumpkin vine (Alu-Puhul in Sinhala). The vine was at the entrance of his Chena. Therefore, that flower bud was the first thing he saw.
Gamarala was so happy. Gamarala was very fond of eating pumpkin preserve. And Gamahamine was very good at making it. “When the ash pumpkin is big enough, I am going to take it home and give it to my wife so she can make ash pumpkin preserve,” Gamarala imagined. That day in the evening, he went home and even told Gamahamine about the flower bud. So, Gamarala was counting days till the ash pumpkin grew enough to harvest it. Every day, early in the morning, he comes to his Chena. The first thing he does is look at the pumpkin vine with a happy face.
In those times, food was not easily available. Most of the villagers in Sri Lanka were farmers. But farming was not an easy task. Some seasons, the rain becomes so rare. So the crops would die. Some seasons, the rain becomes heavy and flooding happens, destroying the crops. And protecting the crops from wild animals such as elephants, deer, wild boars, monkeys, wild buffaloes, and peacocks was very challenging. Therefore, a good harvest is very rare. That is why Gamarala was so happy about the ash pumpkin. So, he waited impatiently to harvest the one big ash pumpkin.
Time flew by, day by day. The ash pumpkin grew bigger and was almost good for harvesting. But Gamarala did not harvest it before the right time came.
One day, Gamarala came to the Chena early in the morning as usual. He could see the ash pumpkin vine even before he entered the Chena. He had been looking at it for the last few weeks. So, he looked at the vine. But he did not see the ash pumpkin.
He jumped the fence to the Chena. He went closer to the vine. There is no ash pumpkin; only the vine is there. It was there last evening when he went home. Now it’s not. “The ash pumpkin has been stolen!” Gamarala realized.
He was angry. And he was sad. He was an honest man who made a living with his own hard work. So, he had an innocent hope to harvest his efforts. He wanted to take it home and give it to his wife to make pumpkin preserve. “I’m going to catch the thief who stole my ash pumpkin,” Gamarala decided. He took time to think of a way to catch the thief. Suddenly, he got an idea. Gamarala went straight back to his home.
On the way home, he told everyone he met that someone had stolen his ash pumpkin. “I am going to catch the thief,” Gamarala said. Also, he asked everyone in the village to come to his place.
“Someone stole an ash pumpkin from Gamarala’s Chena last night. Gamarala is going to catch the thief. Come to Gamarala’s house quickly.” The news went viral. You know, in the villages in old times, people made sure of their presence when someone requested it or when someone needed help. And also, Gamarala was the chieftain of the village. Gama means the village. Raala means officer or chief. Therefore, he is Gamarala. Also, the villagers were curious to see how Gamarala was going to catch the thief. So, all the villagers gathered at Gamarala’s place and stayed in the front yard of Gamagedara.
The man who stole the pumpkin thought, “Gamarala had spread the word that he would catch the thief. Therefore, everyone else will go there. So, if I don’t go, Gamarala will suspect me of the theft.” So, the thief also went to Gamarala’s place. When everyone came, Gamarala came out of the house with a hand-bell in his hand.
“Someone stole an ash pumpkin from my Chena last night. It was heavy enough to take it by keeping it on the shoulder,” Gamarala said out loud. Then he started to dance. It was not like any dance. It was like a thovil dance. Thovil is a kind of dance in exorcisms in Sri Lanka. Gamarala, too, did the same. While dancing, he chanted loudly, “Puhul Hora Karen Dene, Puhul Hora Karen Dene.” It means the ash pumpkin thief is indicated by the shoulder.
When Gamarala was saying that as a chant, everyone was confused. But the thief got scared. He got scared because he thought the ash from the ash pumpkin was still on his shoulder. Because, before the colonial period, the men in Sri Lanka did not cover their upper bodies with cloth in daily life. And it was last night that the theft took place and early in the morning, everyone gathered around. Therefore, while everyone else was confused and looking at Gamarala with wide-open eyes, the thief rubbed off his shoulder.
Gamarala was carefully observing everyone in the crowd while dancing. He saw a man rub off his shoulder. Right after seeing that, Gamarala stopped dancing, jumped off, and caught the thief. He explained to the crowd what had just happened. Then the thief got on his knees, bowed to Gamarala, and begged for forgiveness. And he returned the ash pumpkin to Gamarala. That is how Gamarala caught the Ash Pumpkin Thief.
Gamarala caught the thief because he was smart. The thief was caught, as any thief would eventually make a mistake and get caught. This story brings us a few moral lessons. The first is to be smart in situations that are bad for us. Gamarala lost his ash pumpkin but he did not let his emotions get in the way of his smartness. Another lesson is that we should not steal from others. Instead, we should make a living by doing good things for ourselves and others.