soldiers and told them to devise
some means of killing the merchant's son. So they bound the youth
and showed him to the Prince and said that they would take him to the
jungle and kill and bury him there. They then led him off, but on the
road they caught a lamb and when they got to the jungle they killed
the lamb and steeped the clothes of the merchant's son in the blood
that they might have something to show to the Prince and then went
back leaving the boy in the jungle. They took the bloody cloth to
the Prince and told him to rise and eat, but when he saw the blood,
all his old friendship revived and he was filled with remorse and
could not eat for sorrow. Then the Raja told his soldiers to find out
some friend to comfort the Prince, and they told him that they would
soon set things straight and going off to the jungle brought back the
merchant's son and took him to the Prince; and the two youths forgot
their differences and were as friendly as before.

Time passed and one day the Prince proposed to his friend that they
should run away and seek their fortunes in the world. So they fixed
a day and stole away without telling anyone, and, as they had not
taken any money, they soon had to look about for employment. They
found work and the arrangement their masters made with them was this:
their wages were to be as much rice each day as would go on a leaf;
and if they threw up their work they were to forfeit one hand and
one ear; on the other hand if their masters discharged them so long
as they were willing to work for this wage the master was to lose one
hand and one ear. The merchant's son was cunning enough to turn this
agreement to his advantage, for every day he brought a large lotus
leaf to be filled with rice; this gave him more than he could eat
and he soon grew fat and flourishing, but the Raja's son only took
an ordinary _sal_ leaf to his master and the rice that he got on this
was not enough to keep him alive, so he soon wasted away and died.

Now the merchant's son had told his master that his name was Ujar:
one day his master said "Ujar, go and hoe that sugar cane and look
sharp about it." So Ujar went and instead of hoeing the ground dug
up all the sugar cane and piled it in a heap. When the master saw
his fine crop destroyed he was very angry and called the villagers
to punish Ujar, but when they questioned him, Ujar protested that
he was bound to obey his master's orders; he had been ordered to
hoe the