It has already been indicated that some period of Baba’s boyhood was spent in southern part of Karnataka. He was a boy of ample body strength and this was a boon from God Dattatreya. As a boy, he was naughty and was always involved in some or other boyish mischief. Once in a town, part of a fair, there was a huge wooden chariot (required hundreds of people to pull it) with an idol of god in it. A deputy Superintendent of police also had come there to maintain law and order. When they were getting ready Baba, then just 12 years old, as a mischievous prank pulled the chariot. The police officer got wild and in a rage wanted to hit the boy. But our Baba hit him with a whip in his hand. The officer ordered the police to put him, in lock-up. The boy had to spend 12 days in lock-up during which his mischief continued, but the local police knowing the strength and unworldly capacity of the boy tolerated it. The Dy. Superintend of Police soon took ill and started vomiting and he passed away in this illness.
In a small town Gidgunti there used to be a yearly fair dedicated to God Amareshwar. Once when still in boyhood, Baba had stayed on a hillock near that place. Once some villagers of nearby village set out on a bullock cart to visit the fair. On the way they felt like having tea. So they collected twigs and dry leaves for fuel, placed three stones and started a fire. Then they realized that they had no milk for tea. When they sat worrying, a boy came running there and told them to prepare tea from water drawn from nearby well. Though they did not believe him, still just to try his words they prepared tea.
The wonder was that the tea had already milk in it. Thus it made them realize that the boy was not an ordinary human being but a gifted boy. So they took him with them and took care of him. The boy was none else but Baba. From that day they called him “Well-Saint”. A few years later in the same fair, the heavy chariot with the idol of Amareshwar in it, did not move though pulled by hundreds of people. Baba, still a boy, lived nearby under protection of police. Police kept him, with them because some people in the village thought him to be mad and started harassing him. The boy was called and asked for help. He asked all people to move away and pulled the chariot. People thought that god Amareshwar himself had come as the boy and pulled the chariot.