A man and a woman had a daughter to whom they ever taught, in selecting a husband, to take none but a man with rough hands, as then she might know he would work.
Overhearing this advice, and desiring a wife, a blind man took some rice, pounded it, and having rubbed it over his hands, came to woo the maiden. Though utterly blind, the eyes of the blind man appeared even as the eyes of those who see, and the maiden loved him and gave herself to him in marriage. Never did she suspect the truth.
Many days they lived happily, but upon a time the wife made curry of many kinds of meat, and her husband ate but of one kind. When she asked him why he ate but of the one kind, the husband replied, “If a man eat from a dish, that dish should he wash. If I eat but from one, I need wash but one.”
Again, upon a day, as the husband plowed the rice field, he plowed up the ridges between the fields.
“Why dost thou work after that fashion?” asked the wife.
“The places for planting the rice are small and narrow. I wish to make them larger,” replied the husband.
When the rice had grown, the man went into the fields with his wife, and, as they walked, he fell over the ridges, in among the rice.
“Why dost thou fall upon the rice?” asked the wife.
“I do but measure the distance between the plants. If the rice be good this year, I will then know just how far apart to plant it next year,” he answered.
And upon a time it happened the house was burning, and, as the wife fled, she saw her husband lingering and unable to find the door.