On another occasion some country folks came bringing a mare and her foal. As they could not tell which was the mare and which the foal, the king ordered the ministers to examine them closely, and to report to him on the matter. The ministers examined them both for a whole day, became [[119]]weary, and arrived at no conclusion after all. When Mṛgadhara went home in the evening, Viśākhā touched his feet and said, “O master, wherefore do ye return so late?” He told her everything that had occurred. Then Viśākhā said, “O master, what is there to investigate in that? Fodder should be laid before them in equal parts. The foal, after rapidly eating up its own share, will begin to devour its mother’s also; but the mother, without eating, will hold up her head like this. That is the proper test.”
Mṛgadhara told this to the ministers, who applied the test according to these instructions, and after daybreak they reported to the king, “This is the mother, O king, and that is the foal.” The king asked how they knew that.
“O king, the case is so and so.”
“How was it you did not know that yesterday?”
“O king, how could we know it? Viśākhā has instructed us since.”
Said the king, “The Champā maiden is wise.”
It happened that a man who was bathing had left his boots on the bank. Another man came up, tied the boots round his head, and began to bathe likewise. When the first man had done bathing and came out of the water, he missed the boots. The other man said, “Hey, man, what are you looking for?”
“My boots.”
“Where are your boots? When you have boots, you should tie them round your head, as I do, before going into the water.”
As a dispute arose between the two men as to whom the boots belonged to, they both had recourse to the king. The king told the ministers to investigate the case thoroughly, and to give the boots to the proper owner. The ministers began to investigate the case, and examined first the one man and then the other. Each of the men affirmed that he was the owner. While these assertions were being made, the day came to an end, and in the [[120]]evening the ministers returned home wearied out, without having brought the matter to a satisfactory conclusion. Viśākhā questioned Mṛgadhara, and he told her all about it, whereupon she said, “O master, what is there to investigate? Say to one of them, ‘Take one of the boots,’ and to the other man, ‘Take the other boot.’ The real owner will say in that case, ‘Why should my two boots be separated?’ But the other, the man to whom they do not really belong, will say, ‘What good do I gain by this if I only get one boot?’ That is the proper test to apply.”