The Good Wife and the Bad Husband

Our hero soon reached the bottom of the tree and shouted to the rogue to come down.

“No, I cannot, this is the way to Kailâsa,” said the rogue, and climbed up on the top of the tree.

Seeing no chance of the rogue’s coming down, and as there was no third person present to whom he could call for help, our hero tied his horse to an adjacent tree and began climbing up the pîpal tree himself. The rogue thanked all his gods when he saw this, and waited till his enemy had climbed nearly up to him, and then, throwing down his bundle of booty, leapt quickly from branch to branch till he reached the bottom. He then got upon his enemy’s horse, and with his bundle rode into a dense forest in which no one was likely to find him.

Our hero being much older in years was no match for the rogue. So he slowly came down, and cursing his stupidity in having risked his horse to recover his property, returned home at his leisure. His wife, who was waiting his arrival, welcomed him with a cheerful countenance and said:—

“I thought as much, you have sent away your horse to Kailâsa to be used by your father.”

Vexed as he was at his wife’s words, our hero replied in the affirmative to conceal his own stupidity.

Thus, some there are in this world, who, though they may not willingly give away anything, pretend to have done so when, by accident, or stupidity, they happen to lose it.