STONES AND STONES.
A Raja of a large state in Orissa had drawerfuls of sparkling stones in a steel chest in a strong room day and night guarded by a posse of armed men. The only use which the Raja seemed to have for them was to bring them out on rare occasions and show them to distinguished visitors and dilate on their character, quality and price and the manner, in which, and the time when, and the person by whom they had been acquired. One of these visitors, of a utilitarian turn of mind, a man of common sense, took the liberty to ask the Raja how much his stones yielded him per annum. "Yield me, my good sir!" exclaimed the Raja, astonished at the odd query, "why, they yield me nothing. On the contrary, they cost me a few thousand rupees yearly in the salaries of the two officers who look after their safe keeping and of the men of the guard about the strong room." The visitor demurely remarked, "A poor widow in my neighbourhood has a pair of (mill-)stones which yield her her livelihood. They cost her only a rupee and-a-half in buying and cost her absolutely nothing in keeping."
