know best, so presently he said:

'Lala-ji,[3] could you oblige me by locking up for me a small box for
a short while? When once I get to my village I could bring back
half-a-dozen sturdy men of my own kinsfolk and claim it again.'

The Lala shook his head. 'I could not do it,' replied he. 'I am sorry;
but such things are not my business. I should be afraid to undertake
it.'

'But,' pleaded the merchant, 'I know no one in this city, and you must
surely have some place where you keep your own precious things. Do
this, I pray you, as a great favour.'

Still Beeka Mull politely but firmly refused; but the merchant,
feeling that he had now betrayed the fact that he was richer than he
seemed, and being loth to make more people aware of it by inquiring
elsewhere, continued to press him, until at last he consented. The
merchant produced the little box of jewels, and Beeka Mull locked it
up for him in a strong chest with other precious stones; and so, with
many promises and compliments, they parted.

In a place like an Eastern bazaar, where the shops lie with wide open
fronts, and with their goods displayed not only within but without on
terraces and verandahs raised a few feet above the public roadway,
such a long talk as that between Beeka Mull and the merchant could not
but attract some attention from the other shop-keepers in the narrow
street. If the merchant had but known it, nearly every shop-owner in
that district was a thief, and the cleverest and biggest of all was
Beeka Mull. But he did not know it, only he could not help feeling a
little uneasy at having thus parted with all his wealth to a stranger.
And so, as he wandered down the street, making a purchase here and
there, he managed in one way and another to ask some questions about
the honesty of Beeka Mull, and each rascal whom he spoke to, knowing
that there was some good reason in the question, and hoping to get in
return some share of the spoils, replied in praise of Beeka Mull as a
model of all the virtues.

In this way the merchant's fears were stilled, and, with a
comparatively light heart, he travelled on to his village; and within
a week or so returned to the city with half-a-dozen sturdy young
nephews and friends whom he had enlisted to help him carry home his
precious box.

At the great market-place in the centre of the city the merchant left
his friends, saying that he would go and get the box of jewels and
rejoin them, to which they consente