The Brahmin and The Acrobat

Once upon a time, while Brahmadatta was reigning in
Benares, the Bodhisatta was born as one of a family of
poor acrobats, that lived by begging. So when he grew
up, he was needy and squalid, and by begging he lived.

There was at the time, in a certain village of Kasi, a
brahmin whose wife Avas bad and wicked, and did wrong.
And it befell that the husband went abroad one day upon
some matter, and her lover watching his time went to visit
the house. After she had received him, he said, " I will
eat a bit before I go." So she made ready the food, and
served up rice hot with sauce and curry, and gave it him,
bidding him eat : she herself stood at the door, watching
the brahmin's coming. And while the lover was eating, the
Bodhisatta stood waiting for a morsel.

At that moment the brahmin set his face for home.
And his wife saw him drawing nigh, and ran in quickly-
"Up, my man is coming!" and she made her lover go
down into the store-room. The husband came in ; she gave
him a seat, and water for washing the hands ; and upon
the cold rice that was left by the other she turned out
some hot rice, and set it before him. He put his hand
into the rice, and felt that it was hot above and cold
below. " This must be some one else's leavings," thought
he ; and so he asked the woman about it in the words
of the first stanza :

Hot at top, and cold at bottom, not alike it seems to be:
I would ask you for the reason : come, my lady, answer me !

Again and again he asked, but she, fearing lest her
deed should be discovered, held her peace. Then a
thought came into our tumbler's mind. " The man down
in the store-room must be a lover, and this is the master
of the house : the wife says nothing, for fear that her deed
be made manifest. Soho ! I will declare the whole
matter, and shew the brahmin that a man is hidden in
his larder." And he told him the whole matter : how that
when he had gone out from his house, another had come
in, and had done evil ; how he had eaten the first rice, and
the wife had stood by the door to watch the road ; and
how the other man had been hidden in the store-room.
And in so saying, he repeated the second stanza :

I am a tumbler, Sir: I came on begging- here intent;

He that you seek is hiding- in the store-room, where he went!

By his top-knot he haled the man out of the store-room,
and bade him take care not to do the like again ; and then
he went away. The brahmin rebuked and beat them both,
and gave them such a lesson that they were not likely to do
the same again. Afterwards he passed away to fare ac-
cording to his deserts.