The Learned Poor Man
H. (Henry) Parker translation
In a certain country a poor man, having nothing to eat, went to another country. Having gone there, and gone to a travellers’ shed, he remained lying down.
During the time while he was there, still [another] man of the city who was without food and clothing came to the travellers’ shed. Then the man who came first asked the man who came afterwards, “Where art thou going?”
The man said, “Being without [food] to eat, I am going to this city to beg something.”
Then the man who came first says, “I, indeed, being without [food] to eat have come here. Now then, because we two are men without [food] to eat, I will tell you a device,” said the man who came first to the man who came afterwards.
Then the man who came afterwards asked, “What is it?”
The man says, “Thou having gone to the royal palace and made obeisance, say at the hand of the King, ‘From the exalted royal palace I ought to receive a salary.’ Then the King will ask, ‘On what account should I give pay to thee?’ Then say thou, ‘In this your kingdom, Sir, either for any needed fight, or any needed thing, when I have come into the midst of it I can manage the affair. I can [also] beat the notification tom-toms. Because of that, indeed, I am asking pay.’ ”
Then the man having gone near the royal palace, asked in that manner. The King asked, “For what shall I give pay to thee?” The man replied in the very way which that man told him.
Then the King having heard the words and being pleased, appointed a salary for that man, and said, “From to-day thou must look after the troubles of this city.”
The man having said, “It is good,” said at the hand of the King, “I have nothing to eat,” asking for the pay also, [and he received a sum in advance].
Having gone near that man who gave him the instructions, and told him this talk which occurred at the royal palace, and given the teacher a half share from that pay which was given, taking the other half share the man went to his village. That man who gave the instructions, not going anywhere else, remained cooking and eating at that very travellers’ shed.
At that time, on a road of the city a lion having lain in wait began to kill people. In those days, Bēri-Nādayā, having come to his village, stayed [there]. Without telling Bēri-Nādayā, because he was a new man, having sent the old accustomed Ministers and other multitudes for killing the lion, [the King] told them to return [after] killing the lion.
Thereupon, the party having been sent to go, after they went, when Bēri-Nādayā was going to the royal palace he went to the place where the teacher was staying.
When Bēri-Nādayā was doing this, it happened in this very manner. [The King] gave Bēri-Nādayā at the rate of a thousand masuran a month. Then Bēri-Nādayā, taking the pay, as on other days continued to give little by little [only] to that teacher, so that his regard [for him] became lost, and remained so.
Then the King having waited until the time when Bēri-Nādayā came, says, “It is not like you killed the lion. Seven Kings and seven armies having come, are near the city gates. Go and fight.”
That Bēri-Nādayā went near that teacher, and told him this. The teacher said, “[After] asking for the King’s festival tusk elephant and sword, come thou.”
The Paṇḍitayō came to the palace on the tusk elephant. After he came, the Paṇḍitayō was placed by the King in the post of Prime Minister.
North-western Province.
In The Jātaka, No. 80 (vol. i, p. 204) there is a story which closely agrees with this. The clever man was a dwarfish Brāhmaṇa who, aware that he would not be employed on account of his small size, joined with a huge ignorant weaver, who received an appointment as archer to the King at Benares. By following the Brāhmaṇa’s instructions the weaver obtained all the credit of killing a tiger and buffalo as in this tale, but becoming proud, he treated his adviser with scorn. Afterwards, when ordered to attack a hostile force he was so overcome with fear that the Brāhmaṇa made him descend from the elephant on which they were riding, and he himself then attacked the enemy’s camp, captured the King, and was loaded with honours.
The despatch of the message attached to the arrow is not mentioned in this story; but in the Jātaka tale No. 181 (vol. ii, p. 62) Prince Asadisa, son of a King of Benares, is represented as scratching a message on an arrow, firing it into the camp of some hostile forces headed by seven Kings who were besieging the city, and thereby scaring these enemies away. A footnote states that in the Mahāvastu the message was wrapped round the arrow.
In two instances in the Mahā Bhārata (Drōna Parva, xcix, and cci) the senders’ names were engraved on arrows.
In the Arabian Nights (Lady Burton’s ed., vol. 4, p. 103), a Prince wrote a letter, set it on the point of an arrow, and shot it into a garden in which a lady was walking.
In the Kathā Sarit Sāgara (Tawney), vol. i, p. 519, a young Brāhmaṇa suggested to a Prince that he should receive a daily salary of one hundred gold pieces; this was paid to him. In the same work, vol. ii, p. 251, an unknown man demanded and received five hundred dīnārs (about £250) as his daily wage. In the Hitōpadēśa an unknown Rājput was granted four hundred gold pieces as his daily pay.
While the Sinhalese were besieging the Portuguese in Colombo in A.D. 1588, the Sinhalese King shot into the fort a letter containing a demand for the safe conduct of officials who were to arrange a truce (Pieris, Ceylon, vol. i, p. 243).