A merchant inhabited that city whose wife's name was Subhagâ. She was a person of very light, frivolous disposition, and do what he would he
could not keep her within bounds. One day when she was wandering about the town and getting into mischief, she came across a merchant who lived in the house of a Yaksha. She "promptly fell in love with him, and as he very willingly responded to her advances, she made up her mind to run away with him. Before going she called a confidential maid-servant and said: ' I am going away for a bit: directly after I have started do you set the house on fire, and my husband will be so taken up in trying to put it out that he will not find out I am gone. I shall be back again before long.' So no sooner had Subhagâ started, than her confidant set the place on fire, and her husband who had had his suspicions of the merchant, left keeping guard over the Yaksha's house and came home to
try and put the fire out. Meanwhile her plan succeeded perfectly, while the house was burnt down.
" Thus the merchant lost house and everything, and that will be your majesty's fate if you are so determined. If, however, you permit I will tell you what you want to know, myself." So saying she departed.
