asked him about their two daughters. He told her everything and said,
"The elder one who would not listen to my story will come to grief."

And so she did. For the king, her husband, took an army into a
far country and never came back. But the daughter who had listened
to the story lived well and happy. As time went on the undutiful
daughter became poorer and poorer, until one day she said to her
eldest son, "Go to your aunt's house and beg of her to give you a
present, and bring back whatever she gives you." Next Sunday the
boy started and went to the village where his aunt lived. Standing
by the village tank he called out, "O maids, O slave-girls, whose
maids and slave-girls are ye?" They answered, "We are the maids and
the slave-girls of the minister." The boy said, "Go and tell the
minister's wife that her sister's son is here. Tell her that he is
standing by the village tank, that his coat is tattered and that
his garments are torn, and ask her to let him come into her house
through the back door." The slave-girls took him in through the
back door. His aunt had him bathed, and gave him clothes to wear,
and food to eat, and drink, and a pumpkin hollowed out and filled
with gold coins. As he left, she called to him, "Do not drop it, do
not forget it, but take it carefully home." But as the boy went home,
the sun-god came disguised as a gardener and stole the pumpkin filled
with gold. When the boy reached his mother's house she asked, "Well,
my son, what did your aunt give you?" He said, "Fortune gave, but Karma
[3] took away; I lost everything my aunt bestowed on me." Next Sunday
the second son went and stood by the village tank and called out,
"O slave-girls and maid-servants, who is your master?" They said,
"Our master is the minister." "Then tell the minister's wife that
her nephew is here." He was taken in by the back door. He was bathed
and clothed and given food and drink. As he was going, his aunt gave