Djedi's tale belongs to the Westcar Papyrus, now preserved in Berlin as P 3033. The surviving manuscript is assigned to the Second Intermediate Period, many centuries after the reign of Khufu, when the story is set. The date at which its tales first took shape is a separate and less certain question. Their language and literary setting have prompted discussion of earlier composition, but the surviving papyrus is not a contemporary report from Khufu's court. Its beginning and ending are damaged or missing, and parts of its modern acquisition history are uncertain.

The sequence presents stories of wonders to the king. Prince Djedefhor, also known as Hordedef, changes the pattern by speaking of a remarkable man who is still alive within the world of the story. Djedi, he says, lives at Djed-Sneferu and has reached the ideal age of 110. His reported appetite is extraordinary: five hundred loaves, a shoulder of beef and one hundred measures of beer each day. These quantities establish a figure of fabulous vitality. They are literary exaggeration, not evidence for an actual person's diet.

The prince travels to meet Djedi and brings him to court. The old man is presented not as a helpless beggar but as someone whose wisdom and abilities deserve respect. His books and attendants accompany him, reinforcing the connection between learning and effective magic. When Khufu asks whether he can reunite a severed head with its body, Djedi says that he can. The king proposes testing the claim on a prisoner, bringing the desire for spectacle into conflict with the value of human life.

Djedi refuses to demonstrate his power by harming a person. The king then permits an animal demonstration instead. The episode places a limit on royal curiosity without turning the magician into an enemy of the throne. It is a memorable moral moment within the tale, but it should not be called the only occasion in Egyptian literature when someone challenged a king. The significance lies in what this particular story chooses to praise: extraordinary ability does not require obedience to every demand made by the powerful.

A goose is decapitated and its head and body are placed apart. Djedi speaks his words of power, and the separated parts move together until the bird is whole again. The performance is repeated with another bird and a bull. The story presents these restorations as genuine wonders within its fictional world. It does not explain a stage trick, establish a historical magical technique or prove that such events occurred. The prince also credits Djedi with the ability to make a lion follow him, adding another sign that he possesses knowledge beyond ordinary human command.

The conversation then turns from visible wonders to hidden knowledge. Khufu wants information associated with the sanctuary of Thoth, the god of writing and wisdom. Djedi distinguishes between knowing the answer and knowing where the relevant information is kept: he points to a box at Heliopolis rather than claiming complete understanding. The difficult wording has been translated in different ways, often in relation to secret chambers or their number. What remains clear in the narrative is that the king seeks sacred knowledge for his own purposes, and Djedi knows that its delivery depends on someone not yet born.

Djedi prophesies that Reddjedet, the wife of a priest of Ra, will bear three children whose father is the sun god. These children are destined for kingship, and the eldest will have a role in bringing the desired knowledge. Khufu is troubled by the implications for his own line, but Djedi reassures him that his son and grandson will rule before the new kings. The following tale describes the divinely assisted birth of the children. It provides a literary explanation for a new royal dynasty, not a reliable biological genealogy of the historical Fifth Dynasty.

The king rewards Djedi with accommodation connected to Prince Djedefhor's household and generous provisions. His refusal has not deprived him of royal favour; the narrative allows wisdom, restraint and wonder to be recognised together. Djedi remains a legendary character known through a literary work, not a securely documented official or magician of the Fourth Dynasty. The appeal of his story comes from that combination: a frail-seeming elder commands astonishing power, yet his most important choice is deciding when not to use it.