The Woman Who Traded Husked Sesame

In a certain place there was a brahmin. When a holy season came, he asked a householder for shelter so that he could keep his fast and give alms, and lived there comfortably.

One morning, just as he woke, he overheard a brahmin and his wife talking. The brahmin was saying: "Wife, tomorrow is the winter solstice, a day when giving bears endless fruit. I shall go into the village to receive alms; you give some food to one brahmin, dedicated to the Sun."

His wife answered harshly: "Ground down by poverty as I am — where is food to come from? Since I came into your hands I have known no comfort, tasted no sweets, worn no ornaments on hand or foot."

At this the brahmin said timidly: "Wife, you should not talk so. Nobody ever gets wealth to the measure of his wishes. A well is drawn on a little at a time; the sea is not. Out of even a little, one should give to a worthy person according to the time and place. Do not let your wanting run past all bounds."

In the end she gave in and said: "Then I shall feed one brahmin with sesame." The brahmin went off to the village. His wife husked the sesame in warm water and spread it in the yard to dry in the sun.

After a while a dog came and sat in the middle of the sesame and fouled it. The woman saw and thought: "See the ingenuity of bad luck! This sesame is no use for food now. Very well — let me take these husked seeds to some house and trade them for unhusked ones. Anybody would take that bargain."

She went to a house and called out: "Take husked sesame, give unhusked!" The housewife was pleased and ready to make the exchange. But her son, who had studied Kamandaka's book on statecraft, said: "Mother, this sesame is not to be taken. Why would she trade husked seed for unhusked without a reason? There must be something behind it."

At that the housewife refused the seed.

By the same reasoning I say: this mouse cannot leap so high for no reason. There is certainly something under his burrow.

नाकस्माच्छाण्डिली माता विक्रीणाति तिलैस्तिलान् । लुञ्छितानितरैर्हेतुरत्र भविष्यति ॥

Moral: Not for nothing does mother Shandili trade sesame for sesame — husked for unhusked. There must be a reason behind it.

From the Panchatantra, Book II — The Winning of Friends.