A certain merchant once had a great desire to make a long journey. Now in regard that he was not very wealthy, " It is requisite," said he to himself, " that before my departure I should leave some part of my estate in the city, to the end that if I meet with ill luck in my travels, I may have wherewithal to keep me at my return." To this purpose he delivered a great number of bars of iron, which were a principal part of his wealth, in trust to one of his friends, desiring him to keep them during his absence; and then, taking his leave, away he went. Some time after, having had but ill luck in his travels, he returned home; and the first thing he did was to go to his friend, and demand his iron; but his friend, who owed several sums of money, having sold the iron to pay his debts, made him this answer:
" Truly, friend," said he, " I put your iron into a room that was close locked, imagining it would have been there as secure as my own gold; but an accident has happened which no one could have suspected, for there was a rat in the room which ate it all up."
The merchant, pretending ignorance, replied," It is a terrible misfortune to me indeed; but I know of old that rats love iron extremely; I have suffered by them many times before in the same manner, and therefore can the better bear my present affliction."
This answer extremely pleased the friend, who was glad to hear the merchant so well inclined to believe that a rat had eaten his iron; and to remove all suspicions, desired him to dine with him the next day. The merchant promised he would, but in the meantime he met in the middle of the city one of his friend's children; he carried the child home, and locked up in a room. The next day he went to his friend, who seemed to be in great affliction, which he asked him the cause of, as if he had been perfectly ignorant of what had happened. " O, my dear friend," answered the other, "I beg you to excuse me, if you do not see me so cheerful as otherwise I would be; I have lost one of my children; I have had him cried by sound of trumpet, but I know not what is become of him."
"O!" replied the merchant, "I am grieved to hear this; for yesterday in the evening, as I parted from hence, I saw an owl in the air with a child in his claws; but whether it were yours I cannot tell."
"Why, you most foolish and absurd creature!" replied the friend, " are you not ashamed to tell such an egregious lie? An owl, that weighs at most not above two or three pounds, can he carry a boy that weighs above fifty?"
"Why," replied the merchant," do you make such a wonder at that? As if in a country where one rat can eat a hundred tons' weight of iron, it were such a wonder for an owl to carry a child that weighs not over fifty pounds in all!" The friend, upon this, found that the merchant was no such fool as he took him to be, begged his pardon for the cheat which he designed to have put upon him, restored him the value of his iron, and so had his son again.
FABLES,
PILPAY,
INDIA,
FOURTH CENTURY
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