The Old Woman and the Rice Thief

by Betsy Bang, Molly Bang (Illustrator)

A Bengali folktale about an old woman who is helped by a scorpion-fish, a wood-apple, a razor, and an alligator in her campaign to catch the thief who steals her rice every night

Genres: Picture Books, Folklore, Folk Tales

32 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1978

Reviews

[Cheryl]

A charming tale with simple, colorful illustrations. Great read-aloud

[Prabhat sharma]

The Old Woman and the Rice Thief by Betsy Bang, Illustrator Molly Bang- Children’s Illustrated Colour Picture Book- The book narrates a traditional Bengali tale of an old woman who outwits a rice thief. An old woman resides in a village. For her food, she boils rice in a bowl and places some rice on a hot plate to dry. During the night, a thief arrives and steals rice from the bowl and from the hot plate. She leaves for the King’s palace to lodge a complaint. On the way, she meets (1) scorpion fish, (2) bel tree fruit, (3) cow dung, (4) crocodile. All four of them suggested that when she returns from the palace, she should take them with her so that they can help her catch the thief. At the palace, she found that the King had moved away for hunting will return late next day. The old woman returns back and takes the four helpers with her. Scorpion fish asks her to place her in the pot of rice, Bel fruit asks her to place the fruit on the hot plate, cow dung asks her place it on the stairs of the house, the crocodile asks her let her in the river. When the thief arrives and enters his hand to pick the rice, the scorpion fish bites him. The thief moves to the hot plate to eat the bail fruit, as he touches the bail fruit, it bursts and its hot seeds hit the thief. Thief runs out the house but slips on the cow dung. Thief runs to the river bank to wash his body; the crocodile bites his bum. The thief never returns back. The old woman thanks her friends for helping her outwit and to get rid of the thief. Coloured illustrations help the reader to relate to the story. I have read the Hindi language translation of this book.