One imposter, whose name was Barseesa, always used to
make the pretense of prayer and lived in seclusion.
People used to say that his prayers would help in the
fulfillment of their wishes.
The daughter of the king of the time once fell seriously
ill. All treatments proved futile. In the end it was
thought that the only way for curing her of the illness
was the prayer of Barseesa. But the hermit refused to
come out of his seclusion to the city or the palace
of the king. In the end they reluctantly took the sick
princess to his hermitage. They left her alone with
the hermit.
If this unfortunate hermit was a true man of piety he
would have objected to the leaving of the young princess
alone with him. But he fell in the trap of Satan. He
looked at the girl and was attracted by her beauty.
He had not experienced such a situation throughout his
life. He could not control his baser instinct and raped
the girl.
But Satan didn't stop at this. He put doubts in the
heart of Barseesa that when people learn of his foul
act they would lynch him. To save himself from death
he thought of killing the girl and burying her. He also
thought that if inquiries are made about the girl, he
would say that he didn't know where she had gone.
With these doubts and fears in his mind, Barseesa killed
the princess while she was asleep. Then he dug up a
trench and buried her.
It is narrated that Satan came in human form to the
persons who were searching for the princess and said,
" I know where the girl is!"he then guided
them to the place where the grave was. The angry team
demolished Barseesa's hermitage and dragged him to the
court of the king. People started spitting on his face.
The king ordered him to be hanged.
In the olden days the hanging of criminals was not such
an easy and fast process as it is now. It was a prolonged
and torturous procedure. When Barseesa was about to
die Satan came to him and said, " Even now if you
prostrate to me, I shall save you!" To save himself
from death, Barseesa agreed to prostrate to Satan. In
his last breaths Satan tempted Barseesa to commit a
major sin and earn a place for himself in the fiery
Hell.