Jailer

Author(s): Abhayshekharsuri, Sujata P Kapadia
Publisher: Harshadray Private Limited

Page 55

the second griddle, transforming it into a golden one too. Ranka Sheth realized that the pot was filled with a magical potion which had the power to turn iron into gold. He became greedy. He removed all the necessary, important things from the shop and then set it on fire, making it look like an accident, leaving no possibility of returning the pot.
He pretended to be alarmed and shouted, "Fire! fire!" All the people gathered around and together, they extinguished the fire. Sheth made a new, bigger shop. He had made a heap of gold and had become a very wealthy merchant. The cloth merchant, on his return from the pilgrimage, went to Sheth to collect his pot in good faith. Sheth made a sad face and continued his pretence of the shop being gutted down in a sudden fire in which the pot had been destroyed. The cloth merchant noticed that there was a vast difference in Sheth's prosperity in the short time that he had been away. He realized that Sheth had committed a fraud. What could he do? He suddenly remembered that when he was drawing Siddharas from the well and filling a pot with it, he had heard a mysterious voice which had told him, "This one is in the name of Ranka". He had emptied out the pot and when he had started filling it again, he had heard the voice repeat, "This one is in the name of Ranka."
The cloth merchant reconciled to the fact that he was not destined to possess the pot. It was in Ranka's fate to have it. Whatever had to happen had happened. He had lost the potion which had the power to make gold worth billions and yet he accepted Karmasatta's verdict without
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