The Stolen Plow [More Jataka Tales]
AT one time there were two traders who were great friends. One of them lived in a small village, and one lived in a large town near-by.
One day the village
trader took his plow to the large town to have it mended. Then he left it with
the trader who lived there. After some time the town trader sold the plow, and
kept the money.
When the trader
from the village came to get his plow the town trader said, "The mice have
eaten your plow."
"That is
strange! How could mice eat such a thing?" said the village trader.
That afternoon when
all the children went down to the river to go swimming, the village trader took
the town trader's little son to the house of a friend saying, "Please keep
this little boy here until I come back for him."
By and by the villager
went back to the town trader's house.
"Where is my
son? He went away with you. Why didn't you bring him back?" asked the town
trader.
"I took him
with me and left him on the bank of the river while I went down into the
water," said the villager. "While I was swimming about a big bird
seized your son, and flew up into the air with him. I shouted, but I could not
make the bird let go," he said.
"That cannot
be true," cried the town trader. "No bird could carry off a boy. I
will go to the court, and you will have to go there, and tell the judge."
The villager said,
"As you please"; and they both went to the court. The town trader
said to the judge:
"This fellow
took my son with him to the river, and when I asked where the boy was, he said
that a bird had carried him off."
"What have you
to say?" said the judge to the village trader.
"I told the
father that I took the boy with me, and that a bird had carried him off,"
said the village trader.
"But where in
the world are there birds strong enough to carry off boys?" said the
judge.
"I have a
question to ask you," answered the village trader. "If birds cannot
carry off boys, can mice eat plows?"
"What do you
mean by that?" asked the judge.
"I left my
good plow with this man. When I came for it he told me that the mice had eaten
it. If mice eat plows, then birds carry off boys; but if mice cannot do this,
neither can birds carry off boys. This man says the mice ate my plow."
The judge said to
the town trader, "Give back the plow to this man, and he will give your
son back to you."
And the two traders
went out of the court, and by night-time one had his son back again, and the
other had his plow.
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