Rama Natha was the son of a wealthy landlord who inherited vast areas of fertile land. However, he did not look after his fields because he foolishly believed in a magic potion that could turn any object into gold. Many cunning people cheated him with false promises, and he spent a lot of money chasing this dream. His wife, Madhumati, was deeply worried by his careless behaviour and feared that they would soon run out of money.
One day, a famous sage named Mahipati visited their town. Rama Natha approached him eagerly to learn the secret of the magical potion. The sage agreed to help but gave him a challenging task. He told Rama Natha to plant banana trees and water them with his own hands. In the winter months, he had to collect the morning dew from the leaves until he filled a five-litre bottle. The sage promised that chanting magic words over this dew would create the miraculous potion.
Rama Natha immediately cleared his barren fields and planted rows of banana saplings. He tended the plants with great care and collected the dew every winter morning. While he worked in the fields, his wife Madhumati harvested the bananas, sold them in the market, and saved the money. After six years of persistent effort, Rama Natha finally collected five litres of dew.
He rushed to the sage, who muttered words over the bottle and asked him to test it on a copper vessel. When the copper failed to turn into gold, Rama Natha felt cheated and became very angry. Sage Mahipati then asked Madhumati to open a large box filled with stacks of shining gold coins. The sage explained that there was no magic potion; the real treasure was the result of his own hard labour and his wife's sensible savings. Realizing this deep truth, Rama Natha gave up his foolish quest and happily continued working hard on his plantation.