Bab Bab 5 · The Broken Pot

. The Broken Pot

There lived in a certain place a Brahman, whose name was

Svabhavak_ri_pa_n_a, which means "a born miser." He had collected a

quantity of rice by begging, and after having dined off it, he filled

a pot with what was left over. He hung the pot on a peg on the wall,

placed his couch beneath, and looking intently at it all the night, he

thought, "Ah, that pot is indeed brimful of rice. Now, if there should

be a famine, I should certainly make a hundred rupees by it. With this

I shall buy a couple of goats. They will have young ones every six

months, and thus I shall have a whole herd of goats. Then, with the

goats, I shall buy cows. As soon as they have calved, I shall sell the

calves. Then, with the calves, I shall buy buffaloes; with the

buffaloes, mares. When the mares have foaled, I shall have plenty of

horses; and when I sell them, plenty of gold. With that gold I shall

get a house with four wings. And then a Brahman will come to my house,

and will give me his beautiful daughter, with a large dowry. She will

have a son, and I shall call him Somasarman.

[Illustration:]

When he is old enough to be danced on his father's knee, I shall sit

with a book at the back of the stable, and while I am reading, the boy

will see me, jump from his mother's lap, and run towards me to be

danced on my knee. He will come too near the horse's hoof, and, full

of anger, I shall call to my wife, 'Take the baby; take him!' But she,

distracted by some domestic work, does not hear me. Then I get up, and

give her such a kick with my foot." While he thought this, he gave a

kick with his foot, and broke the pot. All the rice fell over him, and

made him quite white. Therefore, I say, "He who makes foolish plans

for the future will be white all over, like the father of

Somasarman."