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the king's officers could do nothing about it. They now felt that they should seek protection from the king himself. Agadadatta quickly volunteered his own services and assured the king that within seven days he would find out the bandit or burn himself to death. The king and everybody around felt greatly impressed by the spirit of the young man and let him go on the adventure.
Agadadatta went out on a big search and for six days he combed the usual haunts of such people but could get no information and when the seventh day came, Agadadatta was most anxious. However he rejected the cowardly thought that crept in his mind that he should get away to a far off foreign land with Madanamanjari but that was not upto his honour. He had given his word to the king and he must keep it. With such thoughts in his mind he was sitting under a big mango tree when there came an ascetic in red garments with three staves in his hand and a shock of hair on his crown. With chowrie and rosary and a pot of water he looked impressively holy. When he came nearer, Agadadatta noticed his athletic body with its well developed muscles, his sharp eyes that could not conceal a fierce look. Agadadatta felt convinced that this man must have been the bandit. To his queries Agadadatta replied that he was a poor man in search of a fortune to get rid of his poverty. The holy man promised to make him rich almost overnight if he only followed him. When the night came, the holy man produced a long and bright sword from his bag and asked Agadadatta to follow him. He took him to a rich merchant's house in the town and made a hole in the wall big enough to get in. Out of the house he fetched a considerable amount of precious goods filling many baskets. The porters that he had engaged carried them all to a safe place. Later they slept under a tree. When the bandit was sure that every one was fast asleep, he got out of his bed, pulled out his sword and struck first his porters and then turned to the place where Agadadatta was sleeping but Agadadatta had suspected his moves right from the beginning and was most cautious. He did not sleep in the bed but remained concealed behind another tree from where he watched the bandit's attacks on the porters. When he was going near the place where Agadadatta was supposed to be sleeping, Agadadatta pounced upon the bandit with great alacrity and struck him hard on both of his shanks. The bandit collapsed like a broken tree but he did not die until he directed Agadadatta to his sister's
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