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86 Bhûdhara to give him up his son. " My dear friend," replied Bhûdhara, " I am really very sorry, but I cannot ! Your boy was with me, we were walking along the bank of the river, when an eagle came and carried him off." On this the father grew very angry and had Bhûdhara up before the magistrates, on the charge of having made away with his son. Bhûdhara appeared to answer the charge, and when the judge asked him what he had to say, he replied: " My lord ! in a place where the mice can eat up weights and scales of iron, an eagle might easily carry off an elephant — much more a boy."

The magistrate who heard the case decided that when the merchant returned the weights and scales his boy should be restored to him, and so the end of it was that Bhûdhara got back his weights and scales, and the merchant, though he recovered his boy, was punished for the theft.

THERE were two men, one called Subuddhi, the other Kubuddhi, between whom a mutual friendship had arisen. One day Subuddhi was obliged