committed?" And he replied; "Gentlemen, what else could I do?" And with this he related the behavior of Jewel.
The judges therefore despatched a summonser, who returned with Jewel. And they questioned him: "Merchant, why did you kill a certain Jain monk?" And he in turn gave a full account of the original monk. Whereupon they said: "Well, well! Let this villainous barber be impaled. For his act was advised."
When this had been done, they observed:
Deeds ill-known, ill-recognized,
Ill-accomplished, ill-advised—
Thought of these let no man harbor;
Take a warning from the barber.
And there is sound sense in this:
Let the well-advised be done;
Ill-advised leave unbegun:
Else, remorse will be let loose,
As with lady and mungoose.
"How was that?" asked Jewel. And they told the story of
THE LOYAL MUNGOOSE
There was once a Brahman named Godly in a certain town. His wife mothered a single son and a mungoose. And as she loved little ones, she cared for the mungoose also like a son, giving him milk from her breast, and salves, and baths, and so on. But she did not trust him, for she thought: "A mungoose is a
