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95. A MERCHANT AND HIS
UNCHASTE WIFE
A certain merchant had an unchaste wife. She had a lover but she felt uneasy as her husband was always at home. She once persuaded him to go out like many other merchants on a trade mission but he would not know what exactly he could sell. She suggested that he should go to the city of Ujjayini and sell cameldung there. The fool agreed and filled his cart with cameldung and started on his journey. His wife was happy to be thus left alone with her lover.
The merchant spread out his ware on the road side and waited for buyers but none came. Müladeva, a demi-god, took pity on the merchant and offered to sell all the dung only if he agreed to share the profit with him, to which the merchant willingly agreed.
Müladeva used his supernatural powers and sold away the entire lot. He collected a lot of money for the merchant who shared half the profit with him. The merchant said that it was time for him to go back home and Müladeva offered to go with him to his house. He also told the merchant of his wife's faithlessness, of her clever device to keep him away from the house whilst she enjoyed herself with her lover, but the simple minded merchant would not believe it. Müladeva then offered to give him the proof.
When they reached the town, where the merchant lived, they disguised themselves before they went to the merchant's house and asked his wife to give them shelter for the night in her house. She agreed. The lover as usual came in the night and the two began to drink. The woman burst into a song "My husband has gone with
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