And in the following January he visited them again; and when he saw their stock of rice he asked how much they had, and the son-in-law said that there was only what he saw. “But,” said the old man, “When I saw your fields you had a very fine crop coming on.” “The crop was good,” answered the son-in-law “but I owed rice to the money-lender and I have had to pay that back and I have had to pay my rent and this is all that I have left.” “Ah!” said the father-in-law, “when I saw your fields I told you that you had not dammed up the outlets; by outlets I meant these drains; as water flows away through an outlet so has your wealth flowed away to money-lenders and landlords; is not this so?” And the son-in-law admitted that he was right and that his words had had a meaning.
CXXIX. Ramai and Somai.
Once two poor men named Ramai and Somai came to a village and took some waste land from the headman, and ploughed it and sowed millet; and their plough was only drawn by cows and their ploughshare was very small, what is called a “stumpy share;” and when they had sowed a little the rains came on; and Somai gave up cultivation and took to fishing and for a time he made very good profits by catching and selling fish; and he did not trouble even to reap the millet he had sown; he laughed at Ramai who was toiling away clearing more land and sowing maize and rice. He used to go and look at him and tell him that he would never get a crop while he had nothing better than a “stumpy” plough; it would probably break to pieces one day and then he would be helpless; he had much better take to fishing which gave quick and easy returns. Ramai made no answer, but when the rains were over there was no more fishing to be done; and Somai was left to starve and had to go from village to village begging. But Ramai reaped his millet and lived on that till his maize was ripe and then his maize supported him until his rice was ripe and he always had plenty to eat; and to show his despite for Somai, after he had had a good dinner, he would come out in front of his house and call out “What of the stumpy share now?” Every day after eating he would come out and say “At first I worked hard and suffered hunger but now I am eating in happiness; and you were happy then but now you are starving.”
CXXX. The Two Brothers.
There were once two brothers who were constantly quarrelling and one afternoon after a heated quarrel the younger brother asked the villagers to come and judge between them. The villagers agreed to meet the next morning. At cockcrow the next day the elder brother went to the other’s house and woke him up and said “Brother, this is a bad business; you have called in the villagers and they will certainly fine us both for quarrelling; it would be much better for us to save the money and spend it on a pig; then we and our families could have a feast.” “I quite agree,” said the younger brother, “but now I have summoned the villagers, what can be done? If I merely tell them to go away, they will never come again when I summon them.”
The elder brother said, “I have a plan; when they come they will ask how the quarrel began and what abusive words I used; and then you must tell them that that is a point which they have to decide; and then they will be able to do nothing and will go away.” The younger brother agreed to this and when the villagers came and asked what the quarrel was about he said, “Don’t you know what the quarrel was? That was the very matter I wanted you to decide; if you don’t know, how can you judge about it?” And this answer he repeated to all their questioning; then they got angry and said that he was mocking them; and they declined to give any decision, but said that the brothers must give them dinner as they had detained them so long; but the brothers flatly declined to do so as no decision had been given, and the villagers went away grumbling, while the brothers bought a pig with the money they had saved and had a jolly feast and as they ate the elder brother said: “See what a good plan mine was; but for it we should now have been feasting others at our expense.”