The one special thing about Mamad was that he never told a lie. It’s not very easy to do that. But Mamad was a wise man. He kept his eyes open to what was going on around him and chose his words carefully. He became famous as the man who never lied. Even people who lived twenty days away knew about him.

When people told the king about Mamad, the king was not ready to believe it.

 ‘‘Bring this man to me!’’ he said. So Mamad was brought before the king.

 “Mamad, is it true that you never tell a lie?”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

 “And you will not tell a lie in future?”

“Never, Your Majesty.”

 The king looked at Mamad thoughtfully. “Hmm! Be careful. Sometimes we don’t even know how the lie gets on our tongue.”

 Some days passed. The king called Mamad again. When Mamad came, the king was just coming out of his palace. There were many people around him. He was going on a hunt.

 The king called Mamad over to him. “Mamad, I am going on a hunt and then to my summer palace.” The king spoke as he walked towards his horse. He held the horse’s mane and put his left foot in the stirrup. Then he turned to Mamad and said, “Now run to the summer palace, and tell the queen to prepare a big feast for me and my people – including you. Hurry!”

 Mamad turned around and hurried to the summer palace. When he left, the king began to laugh. “I am not going anywhere today. Just wait till Mamad tells this lie to the queen!”

 The next day, the king went to this summer palace. “Did Mamad tell you to prepare a feast for me yesterday? It was a lie.”

“Mamad gave me your message yesterday.” The queen answered. “Mamad said, ‘Maybe the king will come here by noon, maybe he won’t’.”

‘And what does that mean? Tell me for sure.’ I told Mamad, but Mamad said, ‘I can’t tell you for sure. I don’t know whether the king put his right foot in the stirrup or whether he put his left foot on the ground again after I left.’ So we just waited for you yesterday but you didn’t come.’’

 When the king heard this, he was taken aback. He agreed that Mamad was really a wise man who only spoke what he saw with his own eyes – nothing more, nothing less !