XXIX.
DUPED BY THE MAJORITY.
There was a Brahman, Vasanthayaji by name, at Sriramapura, on the banks of the Tamraparni. He conceived the idea of performing a yajna (sacrifice), and wanted four or five of the best goats for the purpose. He went, therefore, to a neighbouring village, purchased the goats, tied a rope round their necks, and was wending his way home, when four Sudras wanted to appropriate the goats to them selves. One of them, therefore, came and stood before the Brahman and said, "Why are you carrying a number of mad dogs?" The Brahman merely thought him a fool who confounded goats with mad dogs. He went on a little further, when another of the Sudras put him the same question, and wanted him to take care, lest the mad dogs should bite him. The Brahman, on hearing these words, entertained a slight doubt in his mind. While pursuing his track a little further, a third of the Sudras came close by the goats, grew exceedingly angry, and began to rebuke the Brahman for letting loose a number of mad dogs on the way-farers. The Brahman, on hearing this, became certain that they must be mad dogs and tried to unloose them, when the last of the Sudras came up and wanted him to tie them up to a tree adjacent, as, by letting them loose, they would fall upon people and bite them. The Brahman thereupon tied them to a tree and ran away. The Sudras then untied them and took them home.
Moral:—An intelligent person can be duped by a number of men maintaining the same foolish opinion.