Week 6 Reading B: Indian Fairy Tales

The plot of The Prince and the Fakir doesn't make a lot of sense to me. It might be some sort of translation error, but the timeline just doesn't work. At the beginning of the story, the Fakir tells the king that he will be back for one of his sons, who haven't been conceived yet, in a year. But when he takes the prince, he is able to gather fuel for the fire, talk, and fight. He also says that he used to fight when he was young, and then gets married, implying that he's an adult. I also don't understand why he didn't just tell his father-in-law that he was a prince, rather than staging an elaborate hunting trip where he used his pet tigers to kill a bunch of animals for him.

                                
                                                                   (The Prince and the Fakir)