Once upon a time, in a small village, there lived a man named Gadai. He was famous for two things: being extremely courageous and being a massive miser. To Gadai, ghosts didn't exist—they were just "free labor that people were too scared to use."
One dark night, Gadai was walking home through a lonely stretch of woods. Suddenly, he saw a tall, pale figure sitting on a high branch of a Banyan tree, swinging its long legs.
Most people would have fainted, but Gadai simply stopped, looked up, and shouted, "Hey you! Why are you sitting up there like a lazy bird? Come down and help me carry my heavy bag!"
The ghost was stunned. It jumped down, baring its long teeth, and hissed, "Do you know who I am? I am the most terrifying ghost in this forest! I eat people for breakfast!"
Gadai yawned and said, "Yeah, yeah, I've heard that before. But you look pretty skinny to me. I bet you can't even climb that tree and pluck those big mangoes at the top. You're probably just all talk."
Insulted, the ghost wanted to prove its power. In a flash, it zipped up the tree and threw down twenty of the finest, ripest mangoes. Gadai quickly stuffed them into his sack, smirking. "Not bad," Gadai said. "You've got some speed. Why don't you come to my house tomorrow? I need someone to help me plow the field."
The ghost screamed in rage, "I am a ghost, not your servant! I am going to devour you right now!"
Gadai calmly pulled a small, cracked mirror from his pocket. The moon peeked out from behind a cloud, providing just enough light. He held the mirror right in front of the ghost's face and whispered, "You want to eat me? Look behind you! There's a much bigger, uglier ghost standing right there, waiting to grab you!"
The ghost saw its own terrifying reflection in the mirror for the first time. It didn't realize it was looking at itself; it thought a monster was staring back! Terrified, the ghost let out a high-pitched shriek and ran into the deep jungle, never to be seen again.
Gadai walked home with a bag full of free mangoes and a great story to tell. From that day on, the ghosts of that forest stopped haunting people, fearing that someone else might show up and make them do farm work!