Language Comprehension In the town of Agra there lived a rich businessman. But he was also quite a miser. Various people used to flock outside his house everyday hoping for some kind of generosity, but they always had to return home disappointed. He used to ward them off with false promises and then never lived upto his word. Then one day, a poet named Raidas arrived at his house and said that he wanted to read out his poems to the rich man. As the rich man was very fond of poetry, he welcomed him in with open arms. Raidas started to recite all his poems one by one. The rich man was very pleased and especially so when he heard the poem that Raidas had witten on hi. In those days it was a custom for rich men and kings to show their appreciation through a reward or a gift, as that was the only means of earning that a poor poet possessed. So the rich man promised Raidas some gifts and asked him to come and collect them the next day. Raidas was pleased. The next morning when he arrived at the house, the rich man pretended that he had never laid eyes on him before. When Raidas reminded him of his promise, he said that although Raidas was a good poet he liked the poem which was written on him and the rest of the poems were very ordinary. He also said that he had earlier promised a reward to Raidas not because he was extremely upset, but as there was nothing that he could do, he quietly left the house. On his way home he saw his brother Kuber riding a horse. So he stopped him and asked for his help after narrating the whole incident. Kuber took him to his own house in order to come up with a plan. After giving it some thought he asked Raidas to go to a friend’s house with five gold coins and request the friend to plan a dinner where the rich man would also be invited. He then narrated his plan to him. Raidas had one trustworthy friend whose name was Mayadas. So he went up to him and told him the plan. The next day, Mayadas went to the rich man’s house and invited him for dinner. He said that he intended to serve his guests in vessels of gold, which the guests whould get to take homeafter the meal. The rich man was thrilled to hear this and jumped at the offer. After ‘the rich man arrived at Mayadas’ house, he was surprised to see no other guests there but Raidas. Anynow , they welcomed him in and started a polite conversation. The rich man had come on an empty stomach and so was getting hungrier by the minute. Finally at midnight the rich man could bear his hunger no longer and asked Mayadaas to serve the food. Mayadas sounded extremely surprised when he asked him what food was he talking about. The rich man tried to remind him that he had been invited for dinner. At this point Raidas asked him for proof of the invitation. The rich man had no answer. At that point Raidas reminded the rich man of the same treatment that he had meted out to him. The rich man realised his mistake and begged for forgiveness. He said that Raidas was a good poet and had not asked him for any reward. He himself and promised to give him some gifts and then cheated him out of them. To make up for his mistake he took out the necklace that he was wearing and gifted it to Raidas. Then they all sat down to eat a happy meal.