pleasure in peeping into their windows than into the holes in his
administration. But Farsight bore the whole burden of public
business, and never wearied day or night.

Then the people began to murmur: "The counsellor Farsight has
seduced the king, and now he alone has all the kingly glory." And
the counsellor said to his wife, whose name was Prudence: "My
dear, the king is devoted to his pleasures, and great infamy is
heaped upon me by the people. They say I have devoured the
kingdom, though in fact I support the burden of it. Now popular
gossip damages the greatest man. Was not Rama forced to
abandon his good wife by popular clamour? So what shall I do
now?"

Then his clever wife Prudence showed that she deserved her name.
She said: "My dear, leave the king and go on a pilgrimage. Tell
him that you are an old man now, and should be permitted to travel
in foreign countries for a time. Then the gossip will cease, when
they see that you are unselfish. And when you are gone, the king
will bear his own burdens. And thus his levity will gradually
disappear. And when you come back, you can assume your office
without reproach."

To this advice the counsellor assented, and said to the king in the
course of conversation: "Your Majesty, permit me to go on a
pilgrimage for a few days. Virtue seems of supreme importance to
me."

But the king said: "No, no, counsellor. Is there no other kind of
virtue except in pilgrimages? How about generosity and that kind