Upon a day a beggar, who was too lazy to work, but ever lived on the bounty of the people, received a great quantity of rice. He put it in a large jar and placed the jar at the foot of his bed, then he lay down on the bed and thus reasoned:
“If there come a famine, I will sell the rice, and with the money, buy me a pair of cows, and when the cows have a calf, I’ll buy a pair of buffaloes. Then, when they have a calf, I’ll sell them, and with that money, I’ll make a wedding and take me a wife. And, when we have a child large enough to sit alone, I’ll take care of it, while my wife works the rice fields. Should she say, ‘I will not work,’ I’ll kick her after this manner,” and he struck out his foot, knocking the jar over, and broke it. The rice ran through the slats of the floor, and the neighbors’ pigs ate it, leaving the lazy plotter but the broken jar.
[15]: The motive corresponds to that of the venerable story of the Milkmaid.
The Ungrateful Fisherman
It happened on a time that a poor fisherman had caught nothing for many days, and while he was sitting thinking sadly of his miserable fortune, Punya In, the god of wisdom, came from his high home in heaven in the form of a crow, and asked him, “Do you desire to escape from this life of a fisherman, and live in ease?” And the fisherman replied, “Greatly do I desire to escape from this miserable life.”
Beckoning him to come to him and listen, the crow told him of a far distant province, whose chow lay dead.
“Both the province and all the chow’s former possessions will I give thee, if thou wilt promise ever to remember the benefits I bestow,” said the crow.
Readily did the fisherman promise, “Never, never will I forget.”
Immediately the crow took the fisherman on his back and flew to the far distant province. Leaving the fisherman just outside the city gate, the crow entered the city, went to the chow’s home, and took the body of the chow away, and, in the place put the fisherman.