Story of the fool who behaved like a Brahmany drake.

A certain foolish man had an angry wife, who said to him; “To-morrow I shall go to my father’s house, I am invited to a feast. So if you do not bring me a garland of blue lotuses from somewhere or other, you will cease to be my husband, and I shall cease to be your wife.” Accordingly he went at night to the king’s tank to fetch them. And when he entered it, the guards saw him, and cried out; “Who are you?” He said, “I am a Brahmany drake,” but they took him prisoner; and in the morning he was brought before the king, and when questioned, he uttered in his presence the cry of that bird. Then the king himself summoned him and questioned him persistently, and when he told his story, being a merciful monarch, he let the wretched man go unpunished.