अन्योन्यं निजवाणिज्यकलाकौशलवादिनाम् ।
क्वचिच्च वणिजां मध्ये वणिगेको ऽब्रवीदिदम् ॥ २७ ॥
anyonyaṃ nijavāṇijyakalākauśalavādinām |
kvacicca vaṇijāṃ madhye vaṇigeko 'bravīdidam || 27 ||
अर्थैः संयमवान् अर्थान् प्राप्नोति कियद् अद्भुतम् ।
मया पुनर् विनैवार्थं लक्ष्मीर् आसादिता पुरा ॥ २८ ॥
arthaiḥ saṃyamavān arthān prāpnoti kiyad adbhutam |
mayā punar vinaivārthaṃ lakṣmīr āsāditā purā || 28 ||
गर्भस्थस्य च मे पूर्वं पिता पञ्चत्वमागतः ।
मन्मातुश्च तदा पापैर्गोत्रजैः सकलं हृतम् ॥ २९ ॥
garbhasthasya ca me pūrvaṃ pitā pañcatvamāgataḥ |
manmātuśca tadā pāpairgotrajaiḥ sakalaṃ hṛtam || 29 ||
ततः सा तद्भयाद् गत्व रक्षण्ती गर्भम् आत्मनः ।
तस्थौ कुमारदत्तस्य पितृमित्रस्य वेश्मनि ॥ ३० ॥
tataḥ sā tadbhayād gatva rakṣaṇtī garbham ātmanaḥ |
tasthau kumāradattasya pitṛmitrasya veśmani || 30 ||
तत्र तस्याश्च जातो ऽहं साध्व्या वृत्तिनिबन्धनम् ।
ततश्चावर्धयत्सा मां कृच्छकर्माणि कुर्वती ॥ ३१ ॥
tatra tasyāśca jāto 'haṃ sādhvyā vṛttinibandhanam |
tataścāvardhayatsā māṃ kṛcchakarmāṇi kurvatī || 31 ||
उपाध्यायमथाभ्यर्च्य तयाकिंचन्यदीनया ।
क्रमेण शिक्षितश्चाहं लिपिं गणितमेव च ॥ ३२ ॥
upādhyāyamathābhyarcya tayākiṃcanyadīnayā |
krameṇa śikṣitaścāhaṃ lipiṃ gaṇitameva ca || 32 ||
वणिक्पुत्रो ऽसि तत्पुत्र वाणिज्यं कुरु सांप्रतम् ।
विशाखिलाख्यो देशे ऽस्मिन् वणिक् चास्ति महाधनः ॥ ३३ ॥
vaṇikputro 'si tatputra vāṇijyaṃ kuru sāṃpratam |
viśākhilākhyo deśe 'smin vaṇik cāsti mahādhanaḥ || 33 ||
… to be continued …
THE STORY OF THE MOUSE MERCHANT
… and in another place, there was a bunch of merchants chatting with one another about the art of making money, when one merchant in particular told the following story:
Many a man, starting with a modest capital, has ended by acquiring great wealth. But I built up my large fortune by starting with nothing at all.
Listen, and you shall hear how I did it.
My father died before I was born; and my mother's wicked relations robbed her of all she possessed. So in fear of her life she fled from them and took refuge at the home of one of my father's friends. There I was born, to become later the protector and mainstay of my excellent mother. Meanwhile she supported our lives by the pittance earned through hardest drudgery; and, poor as we were, she found a teacher who consented to instruct me in the simple rudiments of reading, writing and keeping accounts. Then one day my mother said to me, "My son, your father before you was a merchant, and the time has come for you also to engage in trade. The richest merchant now living in our city is the money changer, Visakhila, and I hear that it is his habit to make loans to the poor sons of good families to start them in business. Go to him and ask him for such a loan."
Straightway I went to Visakhila, the money changer, and found him angrily denouncing another merchant's son, to whom he had loaned money: "See that dead Mouse upon the ground," he said scornfully, "a clever man could start with even such poor capital as that and make a fortune. But, however much money I loan you I barely get back the interest on it, and I greatly doubt whether you have not already lost the principal."
Hereupon I impetuously turned to Visakhila and said, "I will accept the dead Mouse as capital to start me in business!"
With these words, I picked up the Mouse, wrote out a receipt, and went my way, leaving the money changer convulsed with laughter.
I sold the Mouse to another merchant as cat's meat, for two handfuls of peas. I ground the peas and taking with me a pitcher of water, I hastened from the city and seated myself under the shade of a spreading tree. Many weary wood-cutters passed by, carrying their wood to market, and to each one I politely offered a drink of cool water and a portion of the peas. Every wood-cutter gratefully gave me in payment a couple of sticks of wood; and at the end of the day I took these sticks and sold them in the market. Then for a small part of the price I received for the wood I bought a new supply of peas; and so on the second day I obtained more sticks from the woodcutters. In the course of a few days I had amassed quite a little capital and was able to buy from the wood-cutters all the wood that they could cut in three days. It happened soon afterwards that because of the heavy rains there was a great scarcity of wood in the market, and I was able to sell all that I had bought for several hundred panas. With this money I set up a shop, and as I am a shrewd business man I soon became wealthy.
Then I went to a goldsmith and had him make me a Mouse of solid gold. This Mouse I presented to Visakhila as payment of the loan; and he soon after gave me his daughter in marriage. Because of this story I am known to the world as Mushika, the Mouse. So it was that without any capital to build on, I amassed a fortune.
(Katha-Sarit-Sagara. Book I, Chapter 6; adapted from the German of F. Brockhaus.)