well fed and
entertained and when they learnt who their benefactor was they burst
into tears; and the Raja pointed out to them how wrong it was to laugh
at the poor, because wealth might all fly away as theirs had done.

CXL. The Reproof.

A poor man once went to visit his daughter's father-in-law who was very
rich. The rich man was proud of his wealth and looked down on poverty;
so he made no special entertainment for his visitor and only gave him
rice and _dal_ for his dinner. When they went out to bathe he stood
on the bank of the tank and began to boast. "I made this tank; all the
land over there belongs to me; all those buffaloes and cattle you see,
belong to me; I have so many that I have to keep two men to milk them."

The visitor said nothing at the time but that afternoon as host and
guest sat smoking together they saw a beggar standing in front of
the house. The sun was very powerful and the ground was so hot that
the beggar kept shifting from one foot to another as he stood out
in the sun. Then the poor visitor spoke up and said "It is strange
that when you made such a nice house you made the roof without
eaves." "Where are your eyes? Cannot you see the eaves?" asked the
host in astonishment. The other answered "I see that you have made
a house as high as a hill but if it had any eaves, surely that poor
beggar there would not be standing out in the sun; and this morning
you must have been mistaken in saying that that tank was yours for
otherwise you would have given me fish for dinner; and I think that
they were only rocks and tufts of grass which you pointed out to me
as your flocks and herds for otherwise you would have offered me some
milk or curds." And the rich man was ashamed and had no answer to make.

CXLI. Enigmas.

Once upon a time a man and his son went on a visit to the
son's father-in-law. They were welcomed in a friendly way;
but the father-in-law was much put out at the unexpected visit
as he had nothing ready for the entertainment of his guest. He
took an opportunity to go into the house and said to one of his
daughters-in-law. "Now, my girl, fill the little river and the big
river while I am away; and polish the big axe and the little axe and
dig out five or six channels, and put hobbles on these relations who
have come to visit us and bar them Into the cow house. I am going to
bathe and will come back with a pot full of the water of dry land,
then we will finish off these f