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Once upon a time, the king of a land had a terrible headache.

“Aiyyo, Rama! I cannot bear this. My head is going to split into a thousand pieces,” he moaned, and he groaned and wished he could have loaned his splitting head to someone else.

His vaidyar, the court doctor, told him, “I will make you a special potion with seven black peppercorns ground into it. It will cure your headache in a jiffy.”

So he brought forth his mortar and pestle, and filled it with all kinds of spices and medicinal extracts. Then he counted seven dark-as-themoonless-night peppercorns and sprinkled them on the other ingredients. What he didn’t notice was that one of the peppercorns had rolled out of the mortar and his special potion ended up having only six peppercorns. Blissfully unaware, the vaidyar went ahead.

He took up his pestle and made a thick ground paste of the ingredients. He added it to some tulsi water and, satisfied with the result, presented it to the king. The king, eagerly looking forward to getting rid of his headache, drank the potion in one big gulp.

“GMMMKYUMMMM!” he swallowed.

And lo! And behold! Nothing happened. You know why.

It was because of that escaped peppercorn.

Now, what...

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