After this it happened one day that Mahaushadha was at play with the children, and they chose him as their king.[4] He named some of the boys as his ministers, and they went on playing together. There came along the road an old Brahman with his young wife, on their way to another country. The Brahman stepped aside for a time, and during his absence a rogue, full of desire for the wife, came up to her and said, “Good woman, whither has your father gone?”
“Who?” said the wife.
“He is apparently your grandfather,” replied the rogue.
“What do you mean?” she said. [[135]]
“He is apparently your great-grandfather,” said the rogue.
“He is not my father, nor my grandfather, nor yet my great-grandfather, but my husband,” said the wife.
Thereupon the rogue said with a smile, “O foolish woman, are you not ashamed to say in the presence of your friends or any other decorous person that this man is your husband? Have you not on this stately earth seen men of divine beauty?”
“Such men are no more to be found.”
“Take me as your husband, and we will live together. Should the old Brahman put in a claim for you, then say to the great assembly, ‘This man is my husband.’ ”
After the rogue had said this she went off with him. When the Brahman came back, he could not see his wife. He climbed a height, and saw her walking off with another man. He ran after her, and seized one of her hands, the rogue holding on to the other. The Brahman said, “Why are you taking away my wife?”