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TRANSLATION
333 543. Then the lord of the herd showed that man many heaps
of ivory and pearls, and he, having tied up with withies
and so on 544. the ivory, and wrapped the pearls in his own clothes,
took them and together with them was escorted to his
own abode by noble elephants, male and female. 545. With the ivory and pearls he became a rich man. Then
he informed the king about the elephant herd and the
latter went there and captured them. 546. Thus in the Manipaticarita which prepares the path to
mokşa and is extremely attractive, this story, the
thirteenth, has been told by Kuñcika in brief. 547. Said the sādhu Manipati : ‘Disciple, he who fully ascer
tains the facts and rejects a false accusation is intelligent
like the lioness. 548. In a cave of the Vaitādhya mountain a lioness had her
home. Her friends were a hind and a she-jackal.
These three females - 549. dwelt happily. One day the lioness leaving her newly
born cubs went outside the cave. 550. Whilst the hind was asleep the jackal ate them up, smeared
the hind's mouth with blood and cleaned her own mouth. 551. Meanwhile the lioness turned up and not seeing her
offspring, questioned the jackal who replied: The --
hind has eaten them.' 552. The hind got up and was interrogated. She replied thus :
I do not know what happened as I was asleep.' 553. Then the jackal said : Who can doubt her very evil
• deed ? Look lioness, at her mouth smeared with gore.' 554. Then the hind replied to her: 'Wretched jackal, you
ate those cubs, I think, so that you might impute to
me a false accusation.' 555. The lioness watched them arguing and though beset with
uncertainty, said unhesitatingly: 'Deer, vomit what you have eaten.'
