A certain old woman, having caused the proclamation tom-tom to stop, said, “I can catch and give the thief,” it is said. Thereupon they took the old mother near the King.
Then the King having spoken, asked, “Canst thou catch and give the thief?”
“It is so; may the Gods cause me to be wise,” the old woman said, it is said.
“Dost thou require something for it?” he asked.
“[You] must give me a permission for it in this manner,” she said. “That is to say, whether in the [right] time or in unseasonable time,[3] it is proper that I should receive permission for coming to any place I please in the palace,” she said. And the King gave permission for it.
The old mother, upon that same permission having come to the royal house, while conversing in a friendly manner with the Princess after many days had gone by ascertained that from outside anyone was unable to approach the palace. But perceiving that some one could hide inside the lamp that is in the Princess’s chamber, one day, in the evening, at the time when darkness was about to fall, she came to the Princess’s chamber, and having been talking, dishonestly to the Princess she scattered white sand round the lamp, and went away.
In the morning, having arrived, when she looked she saw the foot-marks of a person who went out of the lamp, and perceiving that most undoubtedly the rogue is in the lamp, told the King (rajuhaṭa), it is said. Thereupon the King having employed the servants and brought the rogue out, made the tusk elephant drink seven large pots of arrack (palm spirit), and ordered them to kill him by means of the tusk elephant.
Having made the Prince sit upon the tusk elephant, they went near the upper story where the Princess was. The elephant-driver was a servant who was inside the palace for much time. As he was a man to whom the Princess several times had given to eat and drink, the Princess said for the elephant-keeper to hear, “With the tusk-elephant face don’t smash the tips of the cooked rice.”[4]
The elephant-keeper also understanding the speech, without killing the Prince saved him. Although he employed the tusk elephant even three times, and made it trample on his bonds, at the three times he escaped.
Thereupon the King [said], “This one is a meritorious person;”[5] and having caused him to be summoned, and made notification of these things after he came, at the time when he asked, “Who art thou? What is thy name?” he told all, without concealing [anything]. Thereupon he married and gave the Princess to the Prince.