Story I
In a town called Chandravati there lived a certain Raja. His name was Bhima. A man called Mohana was also an inhabitant of the same town. He was the son of a prominent townsman, and was very rich. One day he fell in love with the wife of a fellow-citizen whose name was Lakshmi. So he got hold of a woman called Purna who was a sort of go-between in these matters, and commissioned her to take a message for him to Lakshmi when her husband was away from home. Purna, who had been handsomely feed, did as she was asked. She went to the house and said to Lakshmi, "There is a man here, in this town, who has fallen a victim to your attractions; I wish you would invite him to your house." "Well!" replied Lakshmi, "this seems to me hardly the sort of thing that a woman of respectable character ought to do, but as you seem to have made the bargain with him, I will do as you wish. For, as the saying is—
" 'Hari cannot avoid the deadly poison;
The tortoise bears up the world on his back;
The ocean endures the submarine fire in its depths;
Honest people always carry out their engagements.' "
