Read the passage and answer the question:
This is an age-old tale. A mother and her daughter Satto, lived in a village. During that time, the forests were full of fruits and flowers. The women and girls of the village used to go and pluck these fruits and flowers. All of them used to pluck the sweet flowers of the mahua (Bassia Latifolia) tree, stored them at home and consumed them later.
One day, all of them plucked the sweet flowers and kept them in their rooms without drying them. Satto's mother was not at home. Satto dried the sweet flowers. As the flowers dried, they shrank. Later on when Satto's mother came home, she found very little flowers and thought that either Satto had eaten the flowers or she had given them to the village girls. In her blind rage, she beat her daughter to death. The women and girls of the village told her that she killed her daughter for such a trivial issue. They asked her to soak the flowers in water. When she soaked the mahuas, they swelled up and the entire room was filled with the flowers. Satto's mother was full of remorse. She regretted the fact that she killed her daughter without thinking. She died because of grief.
She was reborn as the pandak bird. The pandak bird still sings this song-
'Daughter Satto, the mahuas were in proper quantity...'
Why did the mother beat the daughter to death?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → Because she thought Satto had eaten the flowers or given them to the village girls.
When the mother came home she found very few flowers, because the dried flowers had shrunk. She "thought that either Satto had eaten the flowers or she had given them to the village girls", and in her blind rage she beat her daughter to death.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: Because she went to pluck fruits and flowers without telling her. — Incorrect. Not mentioned: plucking flowers was what all the women and girls did; the passage never says Satto went without permission.
Option 2: Because Satto did not dry the flowers. — Incorrect. Contradicted: "Satto dried the sweet flowers." The drying is what made them shrink.
Option 4: Because she was evil. — Incorrect. Wrong reason: she acted in blind rage on a mistaken belief, and was later full of remorse; the passage does not present her as evil.