There lived an old woman named Gangabai in a village. She lived alone as she had no family. One day she helped some tired travelers who entered the village. In return, they gifted her with a calf. Gangabai named him Nandi and took good care of him. Nandi grew to be a fine hefty bull and treated Gangabai as his mother. He was playful and the villagers loved him. One day, a thought struck the young bull. My mother is poor, yet she has taken good care of me. Shouldn't I earn to make her life easy?
With this thought, he went out in search of work that would fetch him something in return. One day a merchant passed through the village with his loaded cart. His ox struggled to cross the deep river. He thought it would be nice to find a bull to pull his cart. He saw Nandi and at once felt that he could pull the loaded cart, so he asked the villagers about Nandi's owner. But nobody claimed to be the bull's owner and the merchant was a surprise.
Someone told the merchant that an old lady takes care of the bull and he can just tie and use it. The merchant put a noose around Nandi and tried to lead him. But Nandi would not budge as he wanted the merchant to fix a price that he could handover to Gangabai. Finally, the merchant whispered in Nandi's ear that he would pay 50 silver coins for the service. Nandi nodded his head and went to pull the cart. It was a tedious task but the sole aim of helping Gangabai made Nandi pull it across.
The task is over and Nandi waited for his payment. Now, the merchant tried to cheat Nandi by paying him the only half the amount. Nandi thought of teaching the merchant a lesson and blocked his path so that he could not move his cart an inch. The merchant was surprised by Nandi's grit and astuteness. He paid the full amount. Nandi hurried back home, but he was too exhausted and fell down as he reached home. Gangabai rushed towards her beloved son. She saw the money tied to his neck.
The men who followed Nandi told her the entire story. Gangabai hugged Nandi and told him that he is more precious than money to her. She gave a bath to Nandi and a good massage as well. Gangabai felt proud of Nandi's love for her.
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