One day, a trader from Arabia visited King Krishnadevaraya.

Introducing himself, he said, “Your majesty, I am known to breed the best racehorses. If you are interested, I can show them to you, and you can decide for yourself. It would be my honour to sell the best Persian horses to you.”

The trader took the King and his courtiers to stables to show the Persian horses.

Impressed, the King said, “Indeed, your horses are superior. I would want at least a dozen of your finest.”

Addressing his courtiers, he said, “You may also buy these horses if you wish.”

Not wanting to anger the King, all the courtiers except Tenali Raman bought one horse each.

“How about you, Rama? Are you not interested?” asked the King.

Tenali Raman answered, “No, your majesty. I believe that the horses in our kingdom are no less than these Persian horses. Why would I want to buy from outside what we have at home?”

The courtiers were all amused. Constantly envious of Tenali Rama and wanting to prove him wrong before the King, they said, “Why don’t we have a horserace to prove your theory, Rama? Let us train our horses for a month. After a month, we can get our horses to race and see if you are right.”

“I accept your challenge,” replied Tenali Raman.

For a month, they trained their horses. On the day of the race, all the courtiers brought their horses, including Tenali Raman.

“I will ride the horse myself,” said Tenali Raman.

He took his position on the back of the horse. He held a long pole with grass tied at the end in front of the horse. While the grass was in front of the horse, it could never touch it.

Soon the race began. All the horses ran swiftly but none as fast as Tenali Rama’s horse. The horse ran hard to grab the grass, but no matter how fast he ran, the grass was always in front of him.

To the surprise of everyone, Tenali’s horse had come first.

“How did this happen, Rama?” asked the King, astonished. “Your horse does not look as strong as the Persian horses, and still he won the race?”

“Your majesty, I have been feeding this horse grass each morning. Today, I had not yet provided the horse with his meal, and hence the horse was hungry. The horse had only one intention when the race started, and that was to reach the grass to feed himself. When there is determination, there is success.”

King Krishnadevaraya was very happy with Tenali Rama and, as always, rewarded him much to the other courtiers’ envy.