went out into the night.

But when he got to the jungle he could not hear the calf, so he
decided to wait where he was till the morning; he was too frightened
of wild animals to stay on the ground, so he climbed a tree leaving
the stick and rope at the foot of it. Soon a tiger smelt him out and
came to the place. Then the stick and the rope took council together
as to how they could save their master; the stick saw that it could
not see in the dark and so was powerless; so the rope agreed to fight
first, and it whirled itself round in the air with a whistling noise,
and the tiger hearing the noise and seeing no one, got frightened,
and thought that there was an evil spirit there; so it did not dare
to come very near and in the morning it took itself off.

Then the Goala saw the cow come to look for her calf, so he took up the
stick and rope and followed her. The cow soon found her calf and asked
it whether it had not been very cold and uncomfortable all night; but
the calf said "No mother, I put my foot in these four pots of rupees
and they kept me warm," The Goala heard this and resolved to see if
it were true; so he dug up the earth where the calf had been lying and
soon uncovered the rims of four pots full of money. But the Goala did
not care to take the money home for fear his wife should talk about
it; he resolved to see first whether his wife could keep a secret.

So he went home and told her to cook him some food quickly; she asked
why, and he said "The Raja has a tortoise inside him and I am going
to look at him." Then his wife said that she must fetch some water,
and she went off with the water pot. On the way she met several women
of the village, who asked her why she was fetching water so early, and
she said, "Because the Raja has a tortoise inside him and my husband is
going off to see it." In less than an hour the village was full of the
news, and the rumour spread until it reached the ears of the Raja. The
Raja was very angry and said that he would kill the man who started
the report, unless he could prove it to be true. So he sent messengers
throughout the country to trace back the rumour to its source.

One messenger found out that it was the Goala who had started the story
and told him that the Raja wanted to give him a present; so he gladly
put on his best clothes and went off to the Raja's palace. But the
Raja had him bound with ropes, and then questioned him as to why he
had told a false story. T