Here's another great story from the Panchatantra.

A long time ago, there was a merchant who had a son. The son was fond of poetry. Once, he bought a book of poetry. He liked one line of a poem so much that he kept reciting it. He recited it so many times that everyone started calling him by that name. It was ‘You get what you are destined to.’

One day, there was a festival in the city. A beautiful princess called Chandrawati also attended this festival. There, she saw a handsome prince and at once fell in love with him. She told her maid to arrange a meeting with the prince. The maid went to the prince and conveyed the princess’s message. The prince agreed to meet the princess. Then, the maid told him details about how and where the meeting would happen. “Come to the white palace after it is dark,” she said. “You will see a rope hanging from one of the windows. Just climb it up and you will reach the princess’s room.”

But when the time came for the prince to go, he backed out.

Around the same time, ‘You get what you are destined to’ was wandering around, came

close to the palace. He saw a rope hanging and climbed it up, entering the princess’s room. It was dark inside and the princess could not see the face of the man. She thought that he was the prince. She treated him royally and talked to him, but the man remained silent. “Why aren’t you speaking?” the princess asked him.

“You get what you are destined to,” the merchant’s son said.

Hearing his voice and taking a closer look at his face, the princess realised that this man was not the prince that she had fallen in love with. She was furious and told him to leave at once.

Then, ‘You get what you are destined to’ went to a nearby temple to sleep there. The watchman of the temple told him that he could sleep in his quarter that was behind the temple.

When ‘You get what you are destined to’ went into the watchman’s house, he entered the wrong room by mistake. This was the room of Vinayawati, the watchman’s daughter. She saw ‘You get what you are destined to’ and in the dark mistook him for her lover. She entertained him and talked to him but the man was

silent. Finally, she said, “Why aren’t you talking to me?”

The merchant’s son replied, “You get what you are destined to.”

Vinayawati realised at once that this was some other man. She threw him out of the house.

Then, one day, the merchant’s son was roaming around when he came across a marriage procession and joined it. The bridegroom’s name was Varakeerti. Just as the marriage ceremony was about to begin, a mad elephant appeared there. Everyone was terrified and ran to save themselves. ‘You get what you are destined to’ immediately rushed to the rescue of the bride. He drove the elephant away by jabbing a nail into its head. On returning there, when Varakeerti saw ‘You get what you are destined to’ holding the hands of his soon-to-be wife, he was furious. He wanted to throw him out of the place. But, the bride said that since ‘You get what you are destined to’ had saved her life, she would marry only him and nobody else.

This girl turned out to be the same princess, Chandrawati, who had mistaken ‘You get what you are destined to’ for the prince

she had fallen in love with and had later thrown him out of the palace on learning the truth. The whole city, including the princess’s father, the king, heard the news of the decision she had taken.

The king got the princess married to ‘You get what you are destined to’ and they lived happily ever after.

Finally, the merchant’s son did get what he was destined to. Truly, destiny plays a great role in our lives.