In the same work, p. 139, there is a story of a foolish weaver who went to steal with some thieves. When they told him to look for a suitable pole for raising the thatch of a house, he woke up the people who were sleeping outside, and asked them to lend him a pole for the purpose. An outcry was raised, and the thieves decamped.
In Indian Fairy Tales (M. Stokes), p. 30, the person who warned a youth who was cutting a branch, said he would die when he found a scarlet thread on his jacket. When a thread stuck on it in the bazaar, he went off, dug a grave, and lay in it until he heard a passer-by offer four pice to anyone who would carry his jar of ghī for him; he then jumped up and offered to carry it.
In Folk-Tales of Kashmir (Knowles), 2nd ed., p. 199, a stupid boy who was sent by his mother to sell a piece of cloth for four rupees, refused six rupees that were offered for it.
[1] Formerly this would be one shilling. The paṇama is one anna, sixteen being equal to a rupee. [↑]
[2] Eight paṇams were thirty-two tuttu. [↑]
[3] Āsaṇam sītam jīvana nāsam. [↑]