There were once two brothers, the elder of whom, named Musai, was honest and kind, but poor. He was just the opposite of his younger brother, called Chô, who was cruel, stingy, dishonest and rich.
Musai was in need of seed-rice and silkworms’ eggs. The past season had been an unfortunate one for him, and it was necessary for him to have these. Knowing that his brother had an abundance of good rice-seed and splendid eggs, he begged him to lend him some.
Now, Chô hated to lend anyone anything, but he didn’t see how he could very well refuse his brother’s request, so he picked out some musty rice-seed and dead eggs, and gave them to him, feeling sure that they were worthless.
Musai thanked him for his kindness, and took them home. He put plenty of mulberry leaves with the eggs, so that the silkworms should have plenty of food when they should arrive. And strange to say the worms came, and throve splendidly, much to Chô’s disappointment, because he was too mean to wish good-fortune to visit anyone but himself.
He took it as a personal insult that the dead eggs he had let his brother have should hatch so well, so one day, when Musai was out, he went to his home, and cut every silkworm in two.
When Musai returned, he was filled with dismay on seeing all of his silkworms killed, but he didn’t think of suspecting his own brother. He had placed a good supply of mulberry leaves for them only the day before, and each piece of worm came to life, and throve.
Now he had twice as many silkworms as before, and they spun double the amount of silk that he had expected; so his brother Chô had really done him a good turn when he tried to ruin him.
Musai began to prosper, much to the disgust of Chô, who proceeded to cut all of his own silkworms in half, thinking that of course the same good fortune would be his. But instead of coming to life again the worms died, which meant the loss of much money for him. This made him very jealous of his brother.
The musty rice-seed which he had given his brother, and which Musai had planted, also turned out well, for it flourished better than any of his own had done. This only added to his jealousy.
The time to cut and harvest the rice approached, when clouds of birds came and devoured it. Musai hastened to drive them away, and this he did again and again, but each time they returned.