The phantom and the 25 tales

One of my favorite books from my youth was Betal Panchabingshati (Betal/Vetala's 25). It contained 25 moral dilemmas on love, romance and principles. Spending an idle day at the office, I decided to look up the book.

Here's the Wiki entry on the tale, titled Baital Pachisi.

The story goes that the King Vikramaditya had to meet this phantom/evil spirit at a graveyard and capture him off a tree. The phantom will tell a story, and in the end he will ask a question. The king had to answer if he knew it, and if he did it correctly, the phantom will return to the tree, or it would fly away.

The entire story is now online in English under the name, Vikram and the Vampire, translated by Sir Richard R Burton in 1870. The book is available here, courtesy of Sacred Text.

Enjoy.