No. 202
The Elephant Guard
In a certain country there are a woman and a man; there are a boy and a girl of those two. During the time when these four were [there], they heard the notification tom-tom at another city. Then the man said, “I am going to look what this notification tom-tom is that we hear.”
After the man went to the city the King said, “Canst thou guard my elephants?”
The man said, “What will you give me?”
The King said, “I will give a thousand masuran, and expenses[1] for eating.”
Thereupon the man says, “It is too little for me and my wife, and my boy and girl, for us four persons.”
After that the King said, “I will give two thousand masuran, and expenses for eating for you four persons.”
Thereupon the man said, “Having returned to my village I will go and call my wife and children to come.”
As he was going, a jewelled ring of a Maharaja had fallen [on the path]. This man, taking the jewelled ring in his hand, thought, “It is bad for me to destroy this jewelled ring; this I must give to the King.”