Through the dark cremation ground strode King Vikramaditya, the silent corpse upon his shoulder, keeping the word he had given to the yogi. And Betaal, the spirit within the corpse, laughed softly: “The night is long, O King. Hear a tale as we go — but if you know the answer to my riddle and keep silent, your head will burst into a hundred pieces.”
And Betaal began. “In a fair town lived a young woman named Madanasundari, married to a gentle young man named Dhavala. Once Dhavala set out with his wife and her brother to visit her father's house, and on the way they came upon a lonely temple of the Goddess Gauri. Dhavala went in alone to bow. As he gazed upon the Goddess, such a storm of devotion rose in his heart that he offered his very life at her feet, and fell lifeless before the altar. When he did not return, the brother went in — and at the sight, grief overwhelmed him, and he too gave up his life and fell beside Dhavala.
“At last Madanasundari entered, and finding them both, she wept as though the world had ended, and begged the Goddess to let her follow them. Then the voice of the Goddess filled the temple: ‘Do not weep, child. Your family's devotion has pleased me. Set each head upon its body, and both shall live.’ Trembling with joy and haste in the dim lamplight, Madanasundari joined the heads — but in her hurry she made a mistake: her husband's head she set upon her brother's body, and her brother's head upon her husband's. Both men rose, alive and well — and hopelessly exchanged.”
“Now tell me, King,” hissed Betaal, “one man bears the husband's head, the other the husband's body — which of the two is truly her husband?” And Vikram answered, for he knew: “The one who bears her husband's head. Of all the limbs the head is chief: it is the head that thinks, the face by which a person is known, and the head that rules the rest of the body — as a king rules his kingdom. Where the head is, there is the man.” “Well judged!” cried Betaal. “But your silence is broken!” And with a burst of laughter he flew back to the ancient tree.