Beauty & Truth, short story.... help

I don't know if I'm in the right place (either newsgroup)
but I hope someone knows what I'm looking for. Actually,
this is for someone else, but I loved the concept so much
that I want to find the story myself, and read it. Here's
the question my friend posed:

On a whim I am looking for this book which I read an
exerpt from a couple of years ago. It's a collection
of short stories. I don't know the title or the author.
The story I read was about a man who goes looking for
Truth because truth is supposed to be beauty and when
he gets to the end of his long journey he finds this
ugly old hag tending her fire. She is Truth and she
tells him to tell everyone that she is young and
beautiful.

If anyone has a clue the name of the short story, the
author, or the book of short stories it was in, I'd love
it.

Thanks,

-Allison
Someday I hope to have time to hang out in book newsgroups
on a regular basis again....

"Allison Turner-" wrote in message
...
I don't know if I'm in the right place (either newsgroup)
but I hope someone knows what I'm looking for. Actually,
this is for someone else, but I loved the concept so much
that I want to find the story myself, and read it. Here's
the question my friend posed:

On a whim I am looking for this book which I read an
exerpt from a couple of years ago. It's a collection
of short stories. I don't know the title or the author.
The story I read was about a man who goes looking for
Truth because truth is supposed to be beauty and when
he gets to the end of his long journey he finds this
ugly old hag tending her fire. She is Truth and she
tells him to tell everyone that she is young and
beautiful.

If anyone has a clue the name of the short story, the
author, or the book of short stories it was in, I'd love
it.

Thanks,

-Allison
Someday I hope to have time to hang out in book newsgroups
on a regular basis again....

Google entry:

"old hag" "searching for truth" (book, story)

Popped up: answer (first link)

Ramanujan, translated folk tale

You can take it from there.

Kris