Page:Folk-lore of the Telugus.djvu/33

25 staggered, but considering that he was not likely to cheat his brother entrusted the whole sum to him. He took it and quietly went away to a far off place.

Then the elder brother, not finding the younger one, returned overwhelmed with sorrow to his own abode, went to the old woman, and said that he did not know what had become of his brother. He, therefore, called upon her to return the whole of the sum entrusted to her. The old woman told him what had happened a few days before; how his younger brother misrepresented the state of affairs, and had walked away with the whole amount.

On hearing this, he began to dispute with the old woman, and brought her before a court of justice. The magistrate heard both the plaintiff and the defendant in the suit in full, saw how the old woman had been duped, called the man and decided a§ follows:—"The money was entrusted to the woman on the underrstanding that it should be returned when both of you came back and demanded it. It is not fair, therefore, to ask her to pay back