Disappointed, though not dispirited, the thieves made their appearance the next night behind the Brahmin's window, intending to break through it. He was expecting them, however, and hearing the sounds of their footsteps when they came to the spot, he addressed his wife, saying, "You see how I have baulked the thieves. I suspected their approach, and therefore to hoax them I spoke of having buried my treasures in the field, while in reality I have kept them at the bottom of the tank beside it."
The thieves, hearing the words, at once went off and secured very capacious vessels to empty the tank, and set to the work in right earnest. The tank soon looked liked a dry pit, while all its water had run over the field, fertilizing the soil for the purpose of agriculture and thus saving the Brahmin considerable expense.
The Brahmin, fearing that the thieves having been baulked twice, would muster in greater force than before and make a more determined and desperate effort, left home the next evening to secure the services of some hirelings to make a strong resistance against attack. A thick darkness covered the fields as he anxiously sped on his errand. In the middle of one of the fields he saw six stalwart men seated in a circle round a fire at which they were warming themselves. He drew towards them, for he too was feeling cold, and to make room for himself said to one of them, "Saratobhái tápái."[1] Now the beings he saw were not men but ghosts, but they also, being of flesh and blood, feel cold as well as men, and require to warm their limbs, and the one addressed, whose name was Tapai, was startled to hear, as he imagined, a human being calling him by name. In a nasal tone, peculiar to ghosts alone, he exclaimed " Brahmin I how did you know my name, and come to address me so familiarly?" The Brahmin was petrified with awe at hearing the voice, for it took him no time to realize that he was in the midst of a company of ghosts. But he summoned up his courage and
- ↑ Move a little, brother, I will warm myself.
