Hiranyaka said, “In the southern country is a city called Mahilaropya, and in its neighbourhood there is a Shiva shrine. In a cell nearby lived a hermit named Tamrachud. Every day he would travel into the city to collect alms, and come back to cook his meal with the food he had collected. After his meal, he would hide the leftovers in the alms-bowl, and leave them hanging on a peg, keeping it for the servants’ breakfast.
One day, some of my subjects complained to me, “O lord, the hermit is storing the food in his bowl and hanging it high on a peg. We are not able to nibble at it. You alone can reach any place. Please help us.”
Accompanied with my subjects, I went to the hermit’s place and springing at the bowl brought the stored food down. All of us then had a good meal. We repeated this act every night and the hermit was disgusted. He moved it from place to place, always hanging it higher but I would get to it easily enough and devour it with my subjects. He brought a bamboo and began striking the food bowl with it. That noise used to frighten us and we would have to wait for him to fall asleep before getting close to the food bowl.
Now one day a guest arrived, a holy man named Brihat. Tamrachud received him with great respect and did whatever he could to make the honoured guest happy. At night they lay on the couch and started to relate holy tales. But Tamrachud’s thoughts were so preoccupied with mice that he kept striking the alms bowl with the bamboo and returned an absentminded answer to Brihat as he asked him a question.
Angered with Tamrachud’s indifference, Brihat told him, “O Tamrachud! You aren’t a great friend of mine anymore. You are not paying attention to our talk. So, night though it be, I shall leave your place and go elsewhere. For friends should visit only where they are greeted with gentleness & respect. Wherever the host is trying to evade the guest, the visitor loses all relevance and respect.”
“Status and ownership of this cell has gone to your head. You do not care for my friendship anymore. You seem to dwell here, but in reality you have earned a place in hell. You have become vain and proud.”
On hearing this, Tamrachud pleaded with him, “Holy sir, please do not speak like this. There is no other friend apart from you. Here is the reason of my inattention. There is a mouse that jumps and climbs to my alms-bowl, however high I hang it, and he eats my leavings. As a result, I am not able to feed the servants and they refuse to tidy up. So to frighten the mouse, I strike the alms-bowl repeatedly with my bamboo. This is the whole story. But I should add that the villain has such cleverness in jumping as to put cats, monkeys, and other creatures to shame.”
Then Brihat said, “Do you know where the mouse-hole is?”
“Holy sir,” said Tamrachud, “I have no idea.”
Brihat said, “Surely, this mouse must have stored a lot of food under his hole. Beyond doubt, it’s the fragrance from his plentiful hoard that gives him the energy to jump so high and eat all your food. When a man earns a lot of wealth, that pile of money increases his strength and confidence.”
Brihat continued, “There is an explanation for everything in this world. There is a reason for Shandili trying to exchange husked sesame seeds in return for degraded sesame seeds.”
After completing the story, Brihat asked Tamrachud, “Do you know his manner of attack?”
“Yes, holy sir, he comes with a school of mice,” answered Tamrachud.
“Well now,” said Brihat, “is there any digging tool around here?”
“Indeed there is,” said Tamrachud. “Here is an iron bar.”
“In that case, let’s wake up early and follow their tracks together, while their footprints are still fresh on the floor,” said Brihat.
Hiranyaka resumed his account and said, “Listening to the conversation between Tamrachud and Brihat, I thought that my end had come. Just as he had marked my food store, he will surely discover my fort too. Wise people can estimate the strength of a man by just looking at him. So terrified, I deserted the regular route to my fortress, and with my followers started on another track. Just then a fat cat sighted us. He immediately pounced on us and killed a number of my retinue.”
And the mice who survived the slaughter scolded me for picking a bad trail, and took shelter in the old fortress, leaving a trail of blood on the floor. Then I departed, alone. The others plunged into the old fortress.
Brihat and Tamrachud saw the trail of blood and following it reached my fort. They started digging and discovered my hoard, the smell of which used to guide me back to the fortress. Then Brihat was filled with glee and told Tamrachud, “Here is the secret of the mouse’s energy. Now, you can sleep in peace.” So they took the hoard and turned to their cell.
When I returned to the spot, I could not bear to look at the sad, disturbing sight. I did not know where to go and what to do to get back my peace of mind. Somehow, I spent the day in sorrow and when it was night went to Tamrachud’s cell followed by my companions, though I was disturbed & short of energy. And when Tamrachud heard the patter of our pack, Tamrachud again began striking the bowl with the bamboo.
Seeing this, Brihat laughed and said, “Have no fear, my friend. His jumping energy is gone with his property.” This angered me so much that I made a desperate jump for the alms-bowl, but missed and fell to the floor. And my enemy saw this and said to Tamrachud: “Look, my friend! It is quite wonderful. Having lost his wealthy store, this is now just a regular mouse and nothing more. It is rightly said that like a fang-less snake, a cash-less man is just a name and nothing more.”
When I heard this, I thought, “This person may be my enemy but he is speaking the truth. With my wealth gone, I am unable to jump a mere finger’s breadth. Losing money is surely a curse upon any being. A person is nothing without his cash. In fact, people who are born in scarcity suffer less than those who move from plenty to poverty.”
With this grief I saw my own hoard of wealth converted into a pillow for my enemy, and at dawn I crept into my deserted fortress. My sadness increased when I heard my attendants telling each other that I was no more capable of providing food for them and they should immediately give up serving me.
I began to ponder deeply, “Struck by fate, when a man is crushed under poverty, he loses the best of his friends. Life of poverty is indeed a curse. Out of wisdom, speech, passions, character & cash, the loss of cash ends up changing him the most. Ah! The curse of poverty is dreadful as death.”
“In this case, what shall I do? How about robbery? But that would be bad, as it means taking what belongs to others. I may have lost my wealth, but I still have my honour intact. I cannot lose that.”
“Well, then, shall I live on charity? That too is bad my friends, real bad. Life is like death for those who survive on begging.”
“Then the only recourse left for me is to recover the very treasure that Brihat has stolen from my fortress. I must regain my property, and if I die in the attempt, it will be better than all other alternatives.”
“Having decided, I went there at night and gnawed a hole in the bag after the two friends had gone to sleep. Unfortunately, Brihat woke up and banged me on the head with the bamboo. I somehow managed to escape death. You see ‘What’s duly his, a man receives’.”
“And that is why I say that man gets what he is destined to. Even God cannot alter destiny. So, I stopped brooding over what has happened because what is ours can never become others.”
“After these reflections, I recovered from my money-madness. I realized that prosperity comes from contentment and not vice versa. Any amount of riches are too less for a greedy person. A person’s greed can make him lie, steal, and do other tasks that bring dishonour.”
“Thinking this, I was retiring to my bed when our friend Laghupatanaka came to me and suggested that I meet you. So here I am and this was my story.”
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