The Brahmin Who Gave Away Half His Life

In a certain place there was a brahmin. His wife was dearer to him than life, but she quarrelled daily with the household and got on with nobody. Worn down by that strife, the brahmin abandoned his own family and went abroad with her.

On the way lay a great forest. The brahmin said: "My dear, there is no water here; go and look for some." When he came back with water he found her lying dead of thirst.

Distraught, he began to lament. Then a voice came from the sky: "Brahmin! If you give her half of your own life, this woman will live again."

Hearing it, the brahmin purified himself, and with three spoken words gave her half his life — and she got up. They drank water, ate forest fruit, and went on.

After some time they came to a pleasure-garden near a city. The brahmin said: "Wait here; I shall go into the town and bring food." And he went.

In that garden a lame man was working a water-wheel and singing sweetly. Hearing him, the brahmin's wife was seized with desire, and went to him and said: "If you do not do as I wish, the sin of my death will be on you." He said: "What use am I to you, a cripple?" She said: "Will you do as I say?" He said: "What can I do?" She said: "I shall carry you."

When the brahmin came back with food, she said: "Brahmin, you have no companion; when you go to a village to beg there is nobody with me. Take this lame man along too." He said: "I can barely carry myself; how shall I carry a cripple?" She said: "I shall put him in a basket."

Simple-minded, he agreed. The next day, resting near a well, she and the lame man together pushed the brahmin into it — and she took the cripple in his basket and went on into a city.

There the king's toll-collectors saw the basket, took it from her by force and opened it, and found the lame man inside. They brought her before the king. The king asked: "Whose is this?" She said: "He is my husband. My relatives persecuted him out of spite, so I have carried him on my own head to this city." Hearing that, the king said: "Lady, you are as a sister to me; take two villages and live happily with your husband."

Meanwhile some good man pulled the brahmin out of the well, and wandering on he came to that same city. Seeing him, she said: "King! My husband's enemy has come!" The king ordered him killed.

Then the brahmin said: "Master! She has taken something of mine; if you judge according to right, have it returned to me." The king said: "Lady, give back whatever of his you have taken." She said: "King, I have taken nothing of his." The brahmin said: "She has taken half of my life, which I gave her."

Frightened by that, she blurted out: "I give it back" — and as the words left her, her life left her too.

Astonished, the king asked: "What is all this?" And the brahmin told him the whole story.

यदर्थं स्वकुलं त्यक्तं जीवितादपि हारितम् । सा मां त्यजति निःस्नेहा कः क्षीणं विश्वसेत्परः ॥

Moral: She for whose sake I gave up my family, and gave away half my life besides, casts me off without a trace of affection. Who, then, will trust anyone once he is weakened?

From the Panchatantra, Book IV — Loss of Gains.