"He was the son of an owl not to have thought of that before," said Fath Shah. "Is there any seller of milk in all Hindustan so foolish as not to mix it with water?"
Isa Dás, without replying, went on with his story. "So Ganesh went on to a little stream that was flowing from a fountain near and filled up his brazen vessel with water; then, with a satisfied mind, carried his three seers' weight to the palace."
"Yours is not much of a story," said Fath Shah. "Such things happen everywhere, and on every day of the year."
"You have not yet heard the end," said the Christian. "After spending some hours in gossip, and making purchases in the bazaars with the money paid for the milk, Ganesh was returning to his home, when he was suddenly seized by the officers of justice on a charge of murder. The little princess and two of her attendants had been taken violently ill after partaking of the milk. The attendants suffered greatly; the poor little princess died."
"How could it have happened!" exclaimed the bearer.
"The wretched Ganesh was put to the torture, and in his agonies confessed that he had mixed the milk with water taken from a certain spring. The spring was examined, and a few feet higher up than the place where Ganesh had filled up his vessel was found the bloated body of a dead serpent, whose venom had mixed with and poisoned the water. The Rajah, full of anger and grief at the loss of a favourite child, put the wretched Ganesh to death."
"I do not see what your story has to do with taking dasturi, or fingering bribes," said the bearer.
"The connection is this," said the Christian. "All unrighteous gains have in them the venom of sin, and though for a while unseen, like the poison in the milk, for every ill-gotten pice we shall have one day to give an account. He whom we Christians own as our Lord once asked the solemn question, 'What shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?' (Mark viii. 36-37). I value mine at far more than fifty rupees a month, nor would risk it for a crore (ten millions) of rupees."
"Your silly scruples will bring you to poverty," said the bearer.
"No fear of that," said the Christian; "it may indeed make me seem poor as regards rupees, but in reality I shall be no loser, for it is written, 'The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it'" (Proverbs x. 22).