Gampolayā and Raehigamayā
H. (Henry) Parker translation
At the time when he was going along there was a travellers’ shed; in that travellers’ shed he lodged. That person called Gampolayā, taking that pingo load of Īriya fruits, came there. Well then, those two persons came in contact [there].
The areka-nut trader (Gampolayā) asked, “What, friend, is your pingo load?”
The betel trader (Raehigamayā) says, “[Betel leaves]. In our country areka-nuts are scarce to an inordinate (no-saehena) extent.”
“Anē! Friend, [I have brought areka-nuts]. In that very way, for our country there is difficulty over betel leaves,” Gampolayā said.
Having said, “If so, let us change our two pingo loads,” the person possessing areka-nuts took the pingo load of betel leaves; the person who has the pingo load of betel leaves took the pingo load of areka-nuts.
Gampolayā [afterwards] says, “I indeed met with a trading at a profit!” When he asked, “What was it?” “I obtained a pingo load of betel leaves” [he said]. Who asked it? A man going on the road.
He took the pingo load of betel leaves to his country. Having gone there and having untied it, when he looked it was a pingo load of [worthless] pepper leaves. [The other man], taking the pingo load of areka-nuts, went to his village. Having gone [there] and unfastened it, when he looked they were [worthless] Īriya fruits.
Well then, those two persons came together at the travellers’ shed on another day. They spoke: “That day our trading did not go on properly. Now then, friend, we two being thieves at this city, [after] cooking rice and having eaten [together], at night let us go for robbery.”
One person, having said he is going to bathe, [went away, and] having eaten cooked rice at the shop, came back. The other [thought], “While he has gone to bathe, that one, going to the shop, will eat rice;” so this one having gone to another place ate cooked rice [there].
A second time they came to the travellers’ shed. [Afterwards] they broke [into] the palace of the King of that city. Taking the box containing the gold things, and having gone [off with it], and during that very night having arrived at a rice field, they went to sleep at the bottom of a tree. Through dishonesty to one of them, the other, taking the box of things, bounded off. Having sprung off and gone, he crept into a mound of straw, and remained there.
[When] they two are talking [about it, he said], “I didn’t bring this box of things through dishonesty to you, but to look at your cleverness.” During all the time each one is thinking of quietly taking the box of goods, and bounding off [with it].
Well then, those two persons having come back, and having walked to the sands of the sea, it became night. Placing that box of things in the midst of the two, when they were lying down the person who stole it at first went to sleep.
Then the other man, taking the box, hid it at a recognisable place (ayiruwak) in the sea. Having hidden it and come back, and very quietly returned near the other one, he went to sleep. The person who hid the box of things and returned, went to sleep.
Then the other one, having arisen very quietly, when he looks for the box of things, the box of things is not there. When he sought and looked about for it, he did not meet with it. [But] when he tasted [with the tip of his tongue], and looked at the body (skin) of that person who is sleeping, until the time when he comes [upward] near the hip there is salt taste.
Now then, that one thought, “He will have hidden it in the water, waist deep in the sea.” Having gone on account of the thought, when he looked in the water to the extent of a round [of the top] of the cloth (pili-waṭak, waist-deep) a tree was near. [The other man] having placed it near the tree he met with it [there].
As soon as he met with it, taking the box of things and having come to his village, he says to his wife and children, “Having sought me, should a man come here, say, ‘He died yesternight. There is delay in going to bury him, until the time when his relatives assemble.’ ” Well then, they are lamenting falsely.
Well then, having brought a Habalossā creeper, and put it round the neck of the person who was dead, when he prepared (lit., made) to drag him the person who was dead laughed. Having laughed, he says, “Friend, I did not bring the box of things on account of stealing it, [but] to look if you are a clever person.”
Well then, these two correctly divided in two the articles in the box of things. The two persons [afterwards] dwelt in happiness.
North-western Province.
In The Orientalist, vol. i, p. 234, Mr. C. J. R. Le Mesurier gave a story in which five beggars agreed that each should put a handful of rice into a pot of boiling water, to make their common meal. When the time came to eat the meal the pot was found to contain only water, each one having placed an empty hand inside it, as though depositing rice.
In Indian Nights’ Entertainment (Swynnerton), p. 45, some of the Sinhalese incidents occur in an account of the doings of two merchants. One of them buried in the mud a brass plate which he stole from the other’s house. The owner found and removed it, and the thief searched in vain for it. They cheated other people, and acquired forty thousand rupees with which one of them made off; the other recovered it by the slipper trick, buried it, pretended to be dead, and at the cemetery the two men frightened some robbers, got their booty, and made an equal division of all.
In Folk-Tales of the Telugus (G. R. Subramiah Pantulu), p. 63, a man set out with a packet containing a quart of sand; a man of a different village was journeying with a packet containing a lump of cow-dung. They met in the evening, and halted at the same rest-house. Each wanted to get the other’s packet, thinking it contained food. The second man said he had a packet of food (apparently cooked) but was not hungry, and asked the other what he had brought. The first one replied that he had uncooked rice with him, and felt very hungry. They exchanged packets, went off at once to avoid recriminations, and discovered that they were mutually cheated.
In The Indian Antiquary, vol. xxv, p. 21, in a Tamil story by Naṭēśa Sāstrī, a man of Tanjore who was carrying a large ball of clay entirely hidden under cooked rice grains which his wife had stuck on it met with a man of Trichinopoly who had a brass pot full of sand covered with raw rice a quarter of an inch deep. Each wanted the other’s rice. The first man stated that not being very well he was afraid to eat the cold rice he had brought, and would like to cook some raw rice. The second man made an exchange with him. After discovering that they were mutually cheated they became friendly, and had other experiences of each other’s roguery (see the variant given after No. 248).
In the Kathā Sarit Sāgara (Tawney), vol. ii, p. 109, a foolish man, in order to avoid sharing with a friend some tasty food which his wife was cooking, pretended to be dead. The friend lamented loudly, neighbours came, they made a pyre at the burning ground, put the body on it and burnt it, the man having determined to die rather than give a share of the food.
In Folk-Tales of Kashmir (Knowles), 2nd ed., p. 299, when two thieves had stolen some treasure from a caravan, one of them by means of the slipper trick got the whole, hurried home, and the pretended death and adventure with the robbers followed.
In Folk-Tales from Tibet (O’Connor), p. 131, when two thieves by a fraud had secured a heavy bag of gold, one of them absconded with it. The other recovered the money by the boot-trick.
In Cinq Cents Contes et Apologues (Chavannes), vol. ii, p. 316, a Brāhmaṇa who had some peas which were so old that it was impossible to cook them, took them to the market, and exchanged them for an ass which would never move when a load was put on its back, each of the barterers thinking he had got the best of the bargain.
In the Sierra Leone stories, Cunnie Rabbit, etc. (Cronise and Ward), p. 300, there is a variant of the latter part of the Sinhalese tale in an account of two greedy men who lived in the east and west. The eastern man came to the western man’s house carrying a box, and would not leave, intending to share in the rice that had been cooked. The owner of the house at last lay down, and told his wife to say he had died. The visitor remained all night, supplied clothes for the corpse, made a coffin, dug the grave, and had nearly covered the body when it requested to be taken out. In the end, the visitor got a share of their food.