Dongata is a comedy about a petty thief whose travails to steal a diamond necklace gets him involved with a naive girl searching for her fiance in the big city. Subbalakshmi is simple girl who grows up in a quaint little village. She goes to the city to find her fiance, Prakash, who comes there to pursue his higher studies. On the train she comes across, Raju, a petty thief who just stole a diamond necklace. To avoid being caught by the police, he places the necklace in Lakshmi's bag without her knowing. Once he's through the police checking, he goes to find Lakshmi. On the pretext of helping her find her fiance, he tries to steal the necklace back. Just when he's about to take the necklace, something funny always happens that prevents him from taking the necklace. Raju starts to develop feelings for Lakshmi but never acts on them. Lakshmi searches the entire city to find her Prakash and Raju tries to help her, and one day she sees Prakash at a five star hotel with another woman. Prakash, falls in love with Lavanya, the owner of the five star hotel and plans to inherit her fortune by marrying her. Heartbroken by what she sees, Lakshmi tries to commit suicide but Raju stops her at the nick of time and reasons with her. They decide to teach Prakash a lesson, so Lakshmi changes her appearance from a simple looking village girl to a flamboyantly beautiful woman. She checks into the hotel under an alias and introduces herself to Prakash and Lavanya. Meanwhile, Raju befriends Lavanya and gets close to her. Prakash gets furious and threatens Lakshmi and Raju not to interfere with his wedding to Lavanya. But Lavanya learns Prakash's true intentions and calls off the wedding. Lakshmi also realizes that Prakash is a selfish man and that she has feelings for someone else, Raju. The movie ends with Raju and Lakshmi ending up together.