There was a man in a village. His parents died before they could even name him when he was a child. As a result, everyone called him “Hey, hey”. As he slowly grew up, he married a woman who, like him, had no one.
After getting married, before heading into Kadapa, a husband has to state his wife’s name and the wife has to state her husband’s name, right? So, without knowing his name, she asked, “What is your name?” He replied, “I don’t know. My parents died before they could name me when I was a child. By the way, what is your name?” She said, “My parents also died when I was a child, and no one named me either.”
So, they both thought, if no one names us, we can name ourselves. They decided to name her “Pulagam” (a type of rice dish) and him “Neyyi” (ghee), and named their guard dog “Thief”. From that day on, they lived happily calling each other “Hey Pulagam” and “Hey Neyyi”.
One day, a thief came to their village to steal. He noticed their house and, seeing that they had no one, decided to deceive them by pretending to be a relative and steal everything.
While Neyyi was plowing the field, the thief approached him saying, “Hey, how are you… it’s been a long time since I saw you… don’t you recognize me? I’m your mother’s brother.” He said all sorts of lies and false relations. Neyyi, believing him, happily said, “I’m plowing now, I’ll come soon, but you go to the house. Pulagam is at home.”
The thief didn’t know that Pulagam was his wife, so he thought, “Oh, they must have made pulagam (the dish) at home. I’ll go and eat it.” He went home cheerfully and told her everything. She, thinking he was indeed a relative of her husband, gave him water to wash up, set up a bed for him, and asked, “Do you want to eat now or wait until Neyyi comes?”
The thief didn’t know that Neyyi was her husband. He thought pulagam would taste better with ghee, so he said, “No hurry… I’ll eat after Neyyi comes.”
After a while, Neyyi came home. Seeing their guard dog wandering outside, he loudly called out to his wife, “Hey… why did you leave the thief loose? Bring a rope quickly, let’s tie him up.”
The thief thought he had been caught. He panicked and thought, “Oh no, they found out I came to steal. That’s why they are asking for a rope to tie me up.” Without waiting for an explanation, he ran away without looking back. Neyyi and Pulagam couldn’t understand why he ran away.