‘But,’ he added severely, ‘Raicharan, you must not stay here.’

‘Where shall I go, Master?’ said Raicharan, in a choking voice, folding his hands, ‘I am old. Who will take in an old man as a servant?’

The mistress said: ‘Let him stay. My child will be pleased. I forgive him.’

But Anukul’s magisterial conscience would not allow him. ‘No,’ he said, ‘he cannot be forgiven for what he has done.’

Raicharan bowed to the ground, and clasped Anukul’s feet. ‘Master,’ he cried, ‘let me stay. It was not I who did it. It was God.’

Anukul’s conscience was worse stricken than ever, when Raicharan tried to put the blame on God’s shoulders.

‘No,’ he said, ‘I could not allow it. I cannot trust you any more. You have done an act of treachery.’

Raicharan rose to his feet and said: ‘It was not I who did it.’

‘Who was it then?’ asked Anukul.

Raicharan replied: ‘It was my fate.’

But no educated man could take this for an excuse. Anukul remained obdurate.

When Phailna saw that he was the wealthy magistrate’s son, and not Raicharan’s, he was angry at first, thinking that he had been cheated all this time of his birthright. But seeing Raicharan in distress, he generously said to his father: ‘Father, forgive him. Even if you don’t let him live with us, let him have a small monthly pension.’

After hearing this, Raicharan did not utter another word. He looked for the last time on the face of his son; he made obeisance to his old master and mistress. Then he went out, and was mingled with the numberless people of the world.

At the end of the month Anukul sent him some money to his village. But the money came back. There was no one there of the name of Raicharan.

the parrot’s training

Once upon a time there was a bird. It was ignorant. It sang all right, but never recited scriptures. It hopped pretty frequently, but lacked manners.

Said the Raja to himself: ‘Ignorance is costly in the long run. For fools consume as much food as their betters, and yet give nothing in return.’

He called his nephews to his presence and told them that the bird must have a sound schooling. The pundits were summoned, and at once went to the root of the matter.

They decided that the ignorance of birds was due to their natural habit of living in poor nests. Therefore, according to the pundits, the first thing necessary for this bird’s education was a suitable cage.

The pundits had their rewards and went home happy. A golden cage was built with gorgeous decorations. Crowds came to see it from all parts of the world. ‘Culture, captured and caged!’ exclaimed some, in a rapture of ecstasy, and burst into tears. Others remarked: ‘Even if culture be missed, the cage will remain, to the end, a substantial fact. How fortunate for the bird!’

The goldsmith filled his bag with money and lost no time in sailing homewards.