He lay down, intending to follow his brother’s example, but found that he could not go to sleep, try as hard as he might. He had not been there long before a group of children came to the field and began to play and enjoy themselves. After a while they all sat down in a ring, and Chô, who pretended to be asleep, watched carefully out of one half-opened eye to see what they would do next.
He saw the eldest one come to the stone close to his head and lift it up, but there was no paper bag beneath it.
The boy was surprised, and said: “I believe this lazy old farmer has taken our bag,” and then he seized Chô’s nose, and gave it a good pull.
Chô then jumped up, and the boy repeated what he had said. The children wouldn’t believe him when he declared that he had touched neither the stone nor the bag, and they shouted and jeered at him.
But this was not the hardest thing that happened to him; for his nose, which the boy had pulled, began to grow. Larger and larger it became, until at last it reached the ground.
In his anger he struck right and left at the children, and ran from the field, holding his nose from the ground as well as he could.
He went to his brother’s house and told him what had occurred. Then a change came over him, and he felt ashamed of himself. He remembered how jealous he had been of Musai, and how he had tried to ruin him by killing his silkworms. He was humble, confessed everything, and asked his brother to forgive him.
Musai spoke kindly to him, and said that this punishment had come to him on account of his envy and jealousy, which bring happiness to no one.
Then he took the paper bag, and gently rubbed Chô’s nose with it. Gradually this became shorter and shorter, until at last it resumed its former shape.
This was a lesson that Chô was not allowed to forget, because whenever after this he attempted to do anything mean or dishonest, his nose would become sore, and in his terror lest it should grow again, he trained himself to live as a kindly, well-disposed man should do.