Having given fifty masuran he got a horse. After he got it he again gave a masurama to that man who went with him. Having given it, and the two persons having gone a considerable distance,[1] this man left both the horse and the man to go [alone], and went home.
When the servant had taken the horse, and gone a considerable distance, after he looked [he found that] night was coming on. On seeing it, taking the horse and saying, “This night I cannot go,” having sought and sought for a resting-place, he met with a place where there were chekkus (mills for expressing oil). There this man found a resting-place; and having tied the horse to an oil-mill, this servant went to a village, and ate and drank, and having returned went to a shed at the side of the oil-mill, and lay down to sleep. Having become much fatigued because he had brought this horse very far, the servant went to sleep.
At dawn, the man who owned the oil-mill, having arisen and come near the oil-mill, when he looked saw that a horse was tied near the oil-mill. So this man thought, “Last night the oil-mill gave birth to a horse”; and unloosing it from the place where it was tied, the owner of the oil-mill, having taken the horse home, tied it in the garden.
Then the servant having opened his eyes, after he looked, because the horse was not near the oil-mill went seeking it. Having seen it tied in a garden close to a house, he spoke to the [people in the] house, “Having tied this horse near the oil-mill, in the night I went to sleep. This one breaking loose in the night came here.” Unfastening it, as he was making ready to go, the man who owned the house came running, [and saying], “Where did my oil-mill give birth to this horse for thee last night?” he brought the horse back, and began to scold the servant. Then the servant thought, “Now I shall not be allowed to go and give this horse to the rich man. Because of it, I must go for a lawsuit.”
As he was going seeking a trial he met with a place where lawsuits were heard. The servant having gone [there] told the judge about the business: “When I was bringing yesterday the horse that I am taking for a rich man, it became night while I was on the road. As there was no way to go or come, I tied and placed the horse at this oil-mill, and went to sleep. Having arisen in the morning, after I looked, because the horse that I brought was not there I went looking and looking along its foot-prints. Having seen that it was tied in the garden near the house of the oil-mill worker, thinking, ‘This one breaking loose has come here,’ I unfastened it. As I was making ready to bring it away, having scolded me and said that the oil-mill gave birth to the horse, he took it,” he said to the judge; and stopped.
Then the judge says, “If the oil-mill gave birth to the horse, the horse belongs to the man who owns the oil-mill,” the judge said.
The servant having become grieved says, “What am I to do now? Without the masuran which the rich man gave me, and without the horse that I got after giving fifty masuran, having gone to the village what shall I say to the rich man, so that I may escape?” he said with much grief.
Then a Jackal having come there along the same road, and having seen it, asks the servant, “Because of what matter are you going sorrowing in this way?”
The servant says to the Jackal, “Jackal-artificer,[2] is the trouble that happened to me right to thee, according to what was said?”
As they were going along, the Jackal, having gone behind him, asks again, “Tell me a little about it, and let us go. More difficult things than that have happened to us—folds [full] of scare-crows tangled together. As we cleared up those with extreme care there is no difficulty in clearing up this also.” So the Jackal-artificer said to the servant.