Note 4 — DIFFUSION

“A Brahmin, who had vowed a sacrifice, went to the market to buy a goat. Three thieves saw him, and wanted to get hold of the goat. They stationed themselves at intervals on the high road. When the Brahmin, who carried the goat on his back, approached the first thief, the thief said, ‘Brahmin, why do you carry a dog on your back?’ The Brahmin replied: ‘It is not a dog, it is a goat.’ A little while after, he was accosted by the second thief, who said, ‘Brahmin, why do you carry a dog on your back?’ The Brahmin felt perplexed, put the goat down, examined it, and walked on. Soon after he was stopped by the third thief, who said, ‘Brahmin, why do you carry a dog on your back?’ Then the Brahmin was frightened, threw down the goat, and walked home to perform his ablutions for having touched an unclean animal. The thieves took the goat and ate it.” See the notice of the Norse Tales in The Saturday Review, January 15. In Max Müller’s translation of the Hitopadesa, the story has a different ending. See also Le Piacevoli Notti, di M. Giovan Francesco Straparola da Caravaggio (Venice, 1567), Notte Prima, Favola III: “Pre Scarpacifico da tre malandrini una sol volta gabbato, tre fiate gabba loro, finalmente vittorioso con la sua Nina lietamente rimane”. In which tale the beginning is a parallel to the first part of “The Master Thief”, while the end answers exactly to the Norse tale added in this edition, and called Big Peter and Little Peter.”