t I will not
denounce you, a miserable creature that has implored my protection.
But whatever gold is in your possession you must give back to me."
When he said this to the maid, she consented, and departed quickly.
But Harisarman reflected in his astonishment: "Fate brings about, as
if in sport, things impossible; for, when calamity was so near, who
would have thought chance would have brought us success? While I was
blaming my jihva, the thief Jihva suddenly flung herself at my feet.
Secret crimes manifest themselves by means of fear." Thus thinking, he
passed the night happily in the chamber. And in the morning he brought
the King, by some skilful parade of pretended knowledge, into the
garden and led him up to the treasure, which was buried under the
pomegranate tree, and said the thief had escaped with a part of it.
Then the King was pleased, and gave him the revenue of many villages.

But the minister, named Devajnanin, whispered in the King's ear: "How
can a man possess such knowledge unattainable by men without having
studied the books of magic? You may be certain that this is a specimen
of the way he makes a dishonest livelihood, by having a secret
intelligence with thieves. It will be much better to test him by
some new artifice." Then the King of his own accord brought a covered
pitcher into which he had thrown a frog, and said to Harisarman:
"Brahman, if you can guess what there is in this pitcher, I will do
you great honor to-day." When the Brahman Harisarman heard that, he
thought that his last hour had come, and he called to mind the pet
name of "Froggie," which his father had given him in his childhood in
sport; and, impelled by luck, he called to himself by his pet name,
lamenting his hard fate, and suddenly called out: "This is a fine
pitcher for you, Froggie; it will soon become the swift destroyer of
your helpless self." The people there, when they heard him say that,
raised a shout of applause, because his speech chimed in so well with
the object presented to him, and murmured: "Ah! a great sage; he knows
even about the frog!" Then the King, thinking that this was all due to
knowledge of divination, was highly delighted, and gave Harisarman the
revenue of more villages, with gold, an umbrella, and state carriages
of all kinds. So Harisarman prospered in the world.

WHY THE FISH LAUGHED

As a certain fisherwoman passed by a palace crying her fish, the Queen
appeared at one of the windows a