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MUNIPATI
89
"In Angadesa, during the reign of King Jitasatru, Subrata (myself) lived in a village named Sangrama He was both popular and wealthy, well-behaved and welldisposed to otbers His wife's name was Priyamitra, who was a lady of no very high morals, but the husband knew it not Once a band of robbers looted the village Somehow, Subrata moved out and saved his life But Priyamitra did not move out She put on ber best clothes and ornaments and sat in the open courtyard. As the robbers came and looted the house, she requested them to carry her · too, which they gladly did, since she was beautiful She was taken to the robber chief who accepted her as his concubine
"After the robbers had gone, everybody returned to check their houses Subrata also did the same But, in his own case, he found that both his wealth and wife were missing So he started a search for his wife and at last reached the robbers' den He spent the night in the house of an old lady who used to make earthen pots It was through her good offices that he came to know all about his wife, who was discovered in the chief s den When she - told the lady of her husband's arrival in search of her, she expressed an apparent joy and said, 'It's very nice of him, To-night, as the chief goes out on his daily business, let him come here I shall go out with him' Subrata was happy to get the report, the more so to think that the recovery would be so easy He reached the chief's den at the appointed hour,' and was received and fed by the *lady But as ill-luck would have it, the robber did not proceed on business that night since he saw some very inauspicious omens on the way, and so he returned at an unexpeeted hour The lady at once put her husband beneath sthe cot
"After the dinner, as the lady sat on the same couch in the company of the chief, she said, 'Sır, if by any chance
