FOR THE LITTLE ONES

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 249, 21 October 1933, Page 3 (Supplement)

FOR THE LITTLE ONES

A DAGGER FOR THE KING. THE BAD BRAHMIN LEARNS A LESSON. My Dear Little Friends,— Rogues can make it dreadfully hard for honest folk to succeed, but there is always some way of overcoming a dishonest man, as you will agree after hearing my tale of the Brahmin and the dagger. Lc-ng ago in India there was a king who bought many daggers for his soldiers, always having them tested by a Brahmin,, and accepting nothing of which the man disapproved. The Brahmin was greedy and dishonest, never losing an opportunity of making money. He tested the daggers for the king, not by feeling the keenness of their edges, nor by testing the quality of the steel, but by smelling them, pretending that his nose could tell whether or not the weapons were made of the best materials. Actually the Brahmin _ received bribes from the smiths and would never pass a dagger as satisfactory unless its maker had first given him a present of money. One day a smith made up his mind that a new dagger he had made should be proved sharp' and good, although he would not bribe the Brahmin to pass it. Accordingly he concealed in the scabbard of the dagger a quantity of very fine cayenne pepper, and when the Brahmin took out the dagger in the presence of the king to test it, the blade, unknown to him ,had pepper sticking to it. When he pretended to smell the steel, the Brahmin put the dagger close to his nose, and the pepper caused him to sneeze violently and cut his nose on the blade. After that, of course, he could not say that the dagger was not sharp, and, to the great delight of the smith, he passed it. So, you see, the smith overcame i ~* the bad Brahmin, who not only had f) to go without the bribe, but also had to suffer the pain of a cut note for his dishonesty.