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In a certain country there lived a very wealthy man whose cattle gi-azed on a wide plain. One day a tiger noticed them, and so did three thieves. At night -the tiger came to where they were lying, and so did the three thieves, but the tiger arrived first. The night was pitch dark, and the cows getting frightened fled to their owner's premises, and all entered the cattle shed. When the tiger saw the cattle flee he ran after them, and entered the shed along with them, The thieves, coming to where they expected to find the cattle, and not seeing them, also went to the cattle shed; but the people of the house not having yet retired to rest, they hid themselves in the vici-nity. When all became still, they entered the cattle shed, and began feeling for the largest and fattest oxen. Two of the thieves, each finding one to his mind, drove them away. But one man being more difficult to please than his neighbours continued to go from one to another groping for a good fat one. In this way he laid his hands on the tiger, it seemed a fat one, but lest there should be one still fatter, he left him for a little. However, as he did not find one better than the tiger he return-ed to him, and felt him all over again. He was without doubt the fattest in the shed, so he drove him out. On reaching the open field, the tiger went in the direction of the jungle, and his driver had great difficulty in getting him to go the road he wished. In this way, — the tiger going one direction, and the man pulling him another, — they spent the night. At cock-crow the thief became aware, that it was a tiger he had been contend-ing with in the dark, and not an ox. He then said to the tiger, "It is you then, whom I have taken possession of." He then released the tiger, who fled to the jungle at full speed.

The thief having been awake all night felt tired, and lying down in the shade of a ridge of a rice field to rest, fell asleep,