Page:Folk-lore of the Telugus.djvu/46

 XVI.

TRUTH WILL COME TO LIGHT. In days long gone by, there lived a wealthy merchant at Delhi. One of his servants purloined some of the property in the house and absconded the next day. The merchant thereupon instituted every search for the thief, but to no avail. Not long after, the merchant chanced to go to another city for business purposes. He there saw the servant who had committed the robbery walking in the street, so he seized him and taxed him with having stolen the property and absconding; but the fellow seized the merchant by the waist-cloth and clamorously demanded his property, saying that the merchant was his servant, that he had stolen the goods out of his house, that he had been looking out for him for many a day, and had now found him. He wanted him, therefore, to hand over the property and then go about his business. On this the real and the false merchants, still disputing, went before the Magistrate and