Dantila the Merchant and the Sweeper

In the city of Vardhamana lived a merchant named Dantila, master of all its trade and chief of the town. He managed the affairs of both the city and the king so well that no one had seen or heard of a shrewder man.

In time Dantila married off his daughter. He invited the whole city and the royal household, fed them, and honoured them with clothes and ornaments. At that feast a palace sweeper named Gorambha, uninvited, seated himself in a place of honour. Dantila had him seized by the neck and thrown out.

Burning with the insult, Gorambha brooded: "What harm can I do him? The only way is to lose him the king's favour. Yet what use is wasting my body in rage? A man who rages when he cannot strike is like a chickpea leaping in the roasting pan — it will never crack the pan."

One morning, while the king still lay half asleep, Gorambha swept nearby and muttered as though talking in his sleep: "The insolence of Dantila! He embraces our queen!" The king shot upright: "Gorambha! Is this true? Has Dantila embraced the queen?" Rubbing his eyes, Gorambha said: "Master, I was up all night at dice and sleep is on me still; I have no idea what I said."

But the doubt had lodged, and Dantila was barred from the palace. The merchant was bewildered — "I have wronged neither king nor people; why this coldness?" Stopped at the gate, he heard Gorambha jeer: "Doorkeeper! This is Dantila, the king's favourite — he has the power to throw men out and let them in, as he once threw me out!" Then Dantila understood where the root of it lay.

He called Gorambha, honoured him with clothes and courtesy, and said: "Brother, throwing you out that day was my fault." Gorambha, puffed up, replied: "Sir, watch me work a marvel of wit and win you back the king's favour."

Again one morning, seeing the king half asleep, he played the same sleep-talking trick — but this time he said something flatly impossible: "Our king eats cucumber while sitting at his toilet!" The king started up: "Fool! What nonsense is this? When did I ever do such a thing?" Gorambha gave the same answer: "Master, I was awake at dice all night; I do not know what I said in my sleep."

Then the king reflected: "If in his sleep he can babble such an impossible thing about me, then what he said about Dantila was just as baseless." He summoned Dantila with honour and restored him to his former place.

So it is said: the man who in his pride slights people high, low or middling comes to grief like Dantila, however great the king's favour.

नरपतिहितकर्ता द्वेष्यतां याति लोके जनपदहितकर्ता त्यज्यते पार्थिवेन्द्रैः । इति महति विरोधे वर्तमाने समाने नृपतिजनपदानां दुर्लभः कार्यकर्ता ॥

Moral: He who serves the king earns the people's hatred; he who serves the people is cast off by kings. With so great a conflict standing between them, a man who can satisfy both is hard to find.

From the Panchatantra, Book I — The Loss of Friends.