and he
caught the thieves for them.

CHAPTER XCIX

XCIX. The Grasping Raja.

There was once a Raja who was very rich. He was a stern man and
overbearing and would brook no contradiction. Not one of his servants
or his subjects dared to question his orders; if they did so they got
nothing but abuse and blows. He was a grasping man too; if a cow or a
goat strayed into his herds he would return the animal if its owner
claimed in the same day; but he would not listen to any claim made
later. He was so proud that he thought that there was no one in the
world wiser than himself.

It happened that a certain man living in the kingdom of this Raja
lost a cow; one evening it did not come back to its stall from
the grazing-ground; so the next day he set out to search for it and
questioned every one he met. He soon got news that a cow like his had
been seen in the Raja's herd. So he went to look, and there, among
the Raja's cattle, he saw his own cow. He asked the cowherd to let him
take it away; but the cowherd refused to do so without a written order
from the Raja. So the owner went off to the Raja and claimed his cow;
but the Raja would not listen and gave him only abuse and turned him
out. Then he went to his friends and asked them to help him but they
were afraid to do anything and advised him to regard the cow as lost
for good.

So the unfortunate man took his way homeward very unhappily; on the way
he sat down by the bank of a stream and began to bewail his loss. As
he cried, Thakur took pity on him and sent a jackal to him. The jackal
came and asked why he was crying, and when it had heard the story of
the loss of the cow, it said "Cheer up! go back to the Raja and tell
him that you want a panchayat to settle the matter about the cow;
and that you intend to call one whether he agrees to abide by its
decision or no. If he agrees, come back quickly to me and I will
arrange to get back your cow for you." So off went the owner of the
cow to the Raja and told him that he wanted to call a panchayat. The
Raja made no objection and bade him call the neighbours together. The
poor man did so and then hurried off to the jackal and told it how
things had turned out. The jackal returned with him to the outskirts
of the city and then sent him to the Raja to say that the panchayat
must be held on the plain outside the city--for the jackal was afraid
of the dogs in the city.

When the Raja received this message it made him ve