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investigate it himself. During the night, he disguised himself in a dark coloured dress which is usually worn by thieves and such shady characters to prowl about at night. Mūladeva sat under a tree waiting to see whether the celebrated thief could be seen anywhere around. Then he shifted to a shed and look, there was the thief Mandita. He asked whether he lived there and who he was. Müladeva said he was only a beggar. Mandita offered to help him so that he would be a rich man. The two of them went to a house of a rich man and Mandita made a hole in the wall, went inside and fetched quite a multitude of valuable things. He asked Müladeva to carry them on his back. He led him to the isolated spot in the garden from where they went to the underground dwelling where Mandita's sister lived. He suggested to his sister that she should wash the feet of the guest and accordingly Múladeva was given a seat near the brink of the well. As she took hold of his foot, she saw that it was extremely delicate; the man must have enjoyed kingly power before. Pity arose in her and she conveyed secretly to him that he should run away from the place and warned that otherwise he would be killed. Muladeva rushed out of the place and the woman raised a cry and Mandita quickly followed Muladeva with a naked sword in his hand. When Múladeva saw that he was being followed, he hid himself behind a Sivalinga that was in a square. Mandita thought that the linga itself was the man that had escaped from his house and he struck it with his sword and quickly returned to his underground dwelling. He left it only at the break of day and when the day came, he was seen working in his tailor's shop.
King Múladeva sent his soldiers to call up Mandita to his presence. On seeing the soldiers in his shop, Mandita knew that the man was not killed the previous night and that he probably was the king himself. When he was brought in the presence of the king, the king rose to greet him. He requested him to take a seat and spoke for some time very pleasantly to him. The king then asked the tailor for the hand of his sister as wife and they were duly married. For some time after the marriage of his sister to the king, Mandita thoroughly enjoyed himself. But one of these days, the king asked Mandita whether he could spare any money for him. Mandita
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