Page:Folk-lore of the Telugus.djvu/42

 XIV.

THE WASHERMAN OF BENARES.

At Benares lived a washerman, who had an ass and a dog. One night some burglars made a chink in the wall, and waited till he should go to bed to break in and rob all his property. The dog was then absent from the spot; but the ass, seeing the robbers enter the master's house, divined what would happen, and how the house would be rid of all its valuables in no time, and thought that, if the dog were here, he would bark loudly, awake the master, and prevent the household property from being robbed. But he did not know when the dog would come; and thought that nobody ought to be indifferent to his master's affairs, especially in a time of sore distress. He ought, therefore, to bray and thus awake the master—so he brayed to the top of his voice. The washerman hearing the ass bray, and thinking that he was unnecessarily awakened by it, lost his temper, took a stick,