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41. SALE OF CUCUMBERS
Once a villager brought cucumbers from his village to sell in a city. He stood at the city gate where came a city dweller who said to him, "If I were to eat all these cucumbers of yours what will you give me?" "I will give you a modaka" said the villager, "A modaka that will not pass through this city gate." So the bet was accepted and witnesses were called.
The city dweller bit off a small piece from every cucumber and claimed that he had eaten them all and asked for the promised modaka. The villager said that he had not eaten all the cucumbers as he had said he would do. The city dweller insisted that he had done just that. To decide the issue, they put up all the cucumbers for sale but no body would buy them and when asked their reply was, "They are eaten". The villager was convinced and the witnesses confirmed that he had to give to the city dweller the promised modaka. It was the villager now who felt worried as to how he could get a modaka of that size. He offered a rupee, two rupees, even hundred rupees to the city man but he insisted only on the modaka.
Fortunately, the villager met another clever city dweller who suggested a way out. Accordingly the villager purchased a modaka from a sweetmeat shop. Then he called his cucumber eater and asked the witnesses to watch well. He kept the modaka in the arch way of the city gate and ordered it to go on but the modaka would not move an inch. The villager then said that he had promised a modaka that would not go through the city gate and this was it. The witnesses agreed that he had kept his word.
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