At a certain village attached to a seaport there was a poor man. The
man tried to borrow twenty thousand pounds from rich men who were in
the village. As there was not a thing to take from him [as security]
any one was unwilling to give the money.
While he was walking about asking for the money, a certain nobleman
[197] having called him, said, "I will give you the money; I shall
not take it again from you." Having said thus, he counted the money
and gave it to him.
And the man taking it, and having gone near the landing-place and
expended two thousand pounds, caused a house to be built, and having
expended sixteen thousand pounds caused the house to be filled with
cow-dung, chaff, etc.
After that, he set fire to the house, and having collected and put
into sacks the whole of the ashes, he gave a thousand pounds, and
bringing a ship for hire loaded the sacks into it. Having gone to a
country in which cold, etc., proceed from serpents, [198] and heaped
up the sacks, and told him to come in three months more, he sent away
the shipmaster (naew-potiya).
The man having unfastened the whole of the sacks of ashes, placed
[the ashes] thinly [on the ground]. The whole of the serpents having
come to the ashes, owing to their having slept there eject jewels.
After three months he again put the ashes into the sacks. And the ship
having arrived that day, he loaded the whole of the sacks [in it],
and having gone to his own country and heaped up the sacks, and for
the remaining cash taking a house for hire, he placed the sacks of
ashes [in it], and dwelt there.
One day having washed a little of the ashes from a bag, there was
a quantity (rasiyak) of very valuable gems there. Having shown that
to the nobleman who gave the money, he told him to take a part from
the bags, but he said he did not want them. And the poor man having
much importuned him, and given him a portion from the bags, the two
persons lived in friendship.
Finished.
Uva Province.