ting story is written in the hieratic
character on papyri which are preserved in the British Museum and in the
Royal Library at Berlin. It is generally thought that the story is the
product of the period that immediately followed the twelfth dynasty.

Once upon a time there lived a man whose name was Khuenanpu, a peasant
of Sekhet-hemat,[1] and he had a wife whose name was Nefert. This
peasant said to this wife of his, "Behold, I am going down into Egypt in
order to bring back food for my children. Go thou and measure up the
grain which remaineth in the granary, [and see how many] measures [there
are]." Then she measured it, and there were eight measures. Then this
peasant said unto this wife of his, "Behold, two measures of grain shall
be for the support of thyself and thy children, but of the other six
thou shalt make bread and beer whereon I am to live during the days on
which I shall be travelling." And this peasant went down into Egypt,
having laden his asses with _aaa_ plants, and _retmet_ plants, and soda
and salt, and wood of the district of ..., and _aunt_ wood of the Land
of Oxen,[2] and skins of panthers and wolves, and _neshau_ plants, and
_anu_ stones, and _tenem_ plants, and _kheperur_ plants, and _sahut_,
and _saksut_ seeds (?), and _masut_ plants, and _sent_ and _abu_ stones,
and _absa_ and _anba_ plants, and doves and _naru_ and _ukes_ birds, and
_tebu, uben_ and _tebsu_ plants, and _kenkent_ seeds, and the plant
"hair of the earth," and _anset_ seeds, and all kinds of beautiful
products of the land of Sekhet-hemat. And when this peasant had marched
to the south, to Hensu,[3] and had arrived at the region of Perfefa, to
the north of Metnat, he found a man standing on the river bank whose
name was Tehutinekht, who was the son of a man whose name was Asri; both
father and son were serfs of Rensi, the son of Meru the steward. When
this man Tehutinekht saw the asses of this peasant, of which his heart
approved greatly, he said, "Would that I had any kind of god with me to
help me to seize for myself the goods of this peasant!" Now the house of
this Tehutinekht stood upon the upper edge of a sloping path along the
river bank, which was narrow and not wide. It was about as wide as a
sheet of linen cloth, and upon one side of it was the water of the
stream, and on the other was a growing crop. Then this Tehutinekht said
unto his slave, "Run and bring me a sheet of linen out of my house"; and
it was brought to h