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JAINA LITERATURE IN TAMIL
123 by the merchant, became covetous. He wanted to misappropriate the whole thing for himself. When the merchant returned to Simhapura, he bought for himself a palatial building for his residence. Leaving his people there, he went to the minister to get back his jewels. But Bhadramitra found the minister Satyaghoșa completely changed. Instead of gladly returning the casket containing the jewels, Satyaghoșa treated the merchant as an utter stranger as if he had not heard anything of him before and denied all knowledge of the casket of jewels. This completely upset the poor merchant, and he went about the streets crying of this injustice and begging for help. Nobody in the town would believe anything against the minister, Satyaghoşa, because he was famous for his integrity and honesty. Naturally people thought that this foreign merchant was a mad fellow falsely accusing the minister of misappropriation. But this merchant Bhadramitra even in his ravings was quite consistent, which consistency could not be associated with any mad man. Hence the queen was attracted by this merchant's cries. She made inquiries and found to her surprise that the minister was really a culprit. But there was no evidence for the deposit of the casket with him; and nobody would come forward as a witness in favour of the merchant. But the queen Rāmadattādēvī, being sure about the casket, requested the king to intervene on behalf of the merchant. The king would not listen to this. As an alternative the queen wanted permission to deal with the case herself. This was readily granted. Then the queen
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