The Story of Two and Three

At the foothills of the White Mountains, there lived an old couple.

They had been married for over fifty years and they loved each other very much.

The old woman loved to cook for the old man and the old man loved to eat pakodas. Pakodas are vegetable fritters.

One snowy evening, the old man said to the old woman,

“My dear, the weather is so dreary and I am hungry. Please make some pakodas.”

The old woman went to the kitchen and found that she had very little flour. They would have to wait until the next day to buy flour from the village shop.

She could make only five pakodas from the flour they had. So she said to the old man,

“You eat three pakodas and I will eat two. If the weather is better tomorrow, we will go to the shop and buy more flour to make lots of pakodas.”

The old man loved pakodas but he loved his wife more than he loved pakodas. So he said to her,

“Oh no, my dear, I am not so hungry anymore. You eat three pakodas and I will eat two.”

The old woman said,

“No, you must eat three and I will eat two because it is you who wanted to eat pakodas in the first place.”

The old man said,

“But you see, you have been working in the kitchen all day, you need to eat more. You eat three and I will eat two.”

And so they argued till it was bedtime. Neither of them agreed to eat three pakodas. They loved each other so much. 

Finally, they decided that the one who wakes up first in the morning must eat three pakodas. Then they went to bed. 

The next morning, none of them woke up early.

The old woman did not clean the front doorstep as she usually did.

And the old man did not go for his morning walk as he usually did.

The milkman rang the bell but nobody opened the door.

The newspaper-man also waited outside.

Three of the old man’s walking buddies came to enquire. 

All five of them pressed the door bell in turns and knocked on the door but neither the old man nor the old lady opened the door. 

The five who waited outside got suspicious and wondered whether the old couple were sick ...or worse...dead?

Fearing the worst, they broke down the door and entered the house. They found the old couple sleeping and thought that they were dead. 

On hearing the five men, the old lady and the old man got up at the same time.

The old lady said, 

“You eat three and I will eat two.”

The old man said, 

“No, you eat three and I will eat two.”

The five men thought that these were the ghosts of the old couple who were coming to get them. They ran as fast as they could while shouting, 

“Ghost! Ghost!”

It took the old couple an hour to convince the men that they were not ghosts. When they told the story of the three and two pakodas, they all laughed till their sides hurt. 

The old couple brought some more flour and the old lady made pakodas for all of them. 

Art: Lisa D'Cruz, 5, India

(Retold)