s! A truce to your jests!

_Maitreya._ But it isn't a jest. Look!

_Charudatta._ Where?

_Maitreya._ Why, here.

_Charudatta._ [_Gazing._] What a very remarkable hole!

The bricks are drawn away below, above;
The top is narrow, but the center wide;
As if the great house-heart had burst with pride,
Fearing lest the unworthy share its love. 22

To think that science should be expended on a task like this!

_Maitreya._ My friend, this hole must have been made by one of
two men; either by a stranger, or else for practice by a student
of the science of robbery. For what man here in Ujjayini does
not know how much wealth there is in our house?

_Charud._

Stranger he must have been who made the breach,
His customed harvest in my house to reap;
He has not learned that vanished riches teach
A calm, untroubled sleep.

He saw the sometime greatness of my home
And forced an entrance; for his heart did leap
With short-lived hope; now he must elsewhere roam,
And over broken hopes must sorely weep. 23

Just think of the poor fellow telling his friends: "I entered the
house of a merchant's son, and found--nothing."

P. 92.4]

_Maitreya._ Do you mean to say that you pity the rascally robber? Thinks
he--"Here's a great house. Here's the place to carry off a jewel-casket
or a gold-casket." [_He remembers the casket. Despondently. Aside._]
Where _is_ that golden casket? [_He remembers the events of the night.
Aloud._] Look, man! You are always saying "Maitreya is a fool, Maitreya
is no scholar." But I certainly acted wisely in handing over that golden
casket to you. If I hadn't, the son of a slave would have carried it
off.

_Charudatta._ A truce to your jests!

_Maitreya._ Just because I'm a fool, do you suppose I don't even
know the place and time for a jest?

_Charudatta._ But when did this happen?

_Maitreya._ Why, when I told you that your fingers were cold.

_Charudatta._ It might have been. [_He searches about. Joyfully._]
My friend, I have something pleasant to tell you.

_Maitreya._ What? Wasn't it stolen?

_Charudatta._ Yes.

_Maitreya._ What is the pleasant news, then?

_Charudatta._ The fact that he did not go away disappointed.

_Maitreya._ But it was only entrusted to our care.

_Charudatta._ What! entrusted to our care? [_He swoons._]

_Maitreya._ Come to yourself, man. Is the fact that a thie