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still embracing his beloved herbs in the mountain caves and the bees were settling on another cluster of kumudas, a certain thief saw Madanasená, as she was going along alone at night, and rushing upon her, seized her by the hem of her garment. He said to her, " Who are you, and where are you going?" When he said this, she, being afraid, said, " What does that matter to you? Let me go; I have business here." Then the thief said, " How can I, who am a thief, let you go?" Hearing that, she replied, " Take my ornaments." The thief answered her, " What do I care for these gems, fair one? I will not surrender you, the ornament of the world, with your face like the moonstone, your hair black like jet, your waist like a diamond,*[1] your limbs like gold, fascinating beholders with your ruby- coloured feet."
When the thief said this, the helpless merchant's daughter told him her story, and entreated him as follows, " Excuse me for a moment, that I may keep my word, and as soon as I have done that, I will quickly return to you, if you remain here. Believe me, my good man, I will never break this true promise of mine." When the thief heard that, he let her go, believing that she was a woman who would keep her word, and he remained in that very spot, waiting for her return.
She, for her part, went to that merchant Dharmadatta. And when he saw that she had come to that wood, he asked her how it happened, and then, though he had longed for her, he said to her, after reflecting a moment, " I am delighted at your faithfulness to your promise; what have I to do with you, the wife of another? So go back, as you came, before any one sees you." When he thus let her go, she said, " So be it," and leaving that place, she went to the thief, who was waiting for her in the road. He said to her, " Tell me what befell you when you arrived at the trysting- place." So she told him how the merchant let her go. Then the thief said, " Since this is so, then I also will let you go, being pleased with your truthfulness: return home with your ornaments !"
So he too let her go, and went with her to guard her, and she returned to the house of her husband, delighted at having preserved her honour. There the chaste woman entered secretly, and went delighted to her husband; and he, when he saw her, questioned her; so she told him the whole story. And Samudratta, perceiving that his good wife had kept her word without losing her honour, assumed a bright and cheerful expression, and welcomed her as a pure-minded woman, who had not disgraced her family, and lived happily with her ever afterwards.
When the Vetála had told this story in the cemetery to king Trivikramasena, he went on to say to him; " So tell me, king, which was the really generous man of those three, the two merchants and the thief?"
- ↑ * The word vajra also means thunderbolt.
