There is a man’s elephant. Yet [another] man having gone [to him], said, “Friend, give (that is, lend) me your elephant; there is a work for me to do for myself,” and asked for it. Then the man who owned the elephant says, “Take it and go.” Afterwards the man having taken it, while it was doing his work the elephant died.

Afterwards this man having come, says, “Friend, while your elephant was with me it died. On that account am I to take an elephant and give it to you; or if not am I to give the money it is worth?” he asked.

Thereupon the man who owned the elephant says, “I don’t want another elephant; I don’t want the money, too. Give me my elephant itself,” he says.

Then this man says, “I cannot give the elephant that died. Do the thing that thou canst,” he said.

Thereupon the man who owned the elephant says, “I will kill thee.”

One day, having seen this man who owned the elephant coming, this man’s wife says to the man, “Placing a large water-pot near the door, shut the door.” This one having said, “It is good,” placed a large water-pot near the door, and shut the door.

Thereupon the man who owned the elephant having come to the house, asked the woman, “Where is thy husband?” Then the woman said, “There. He is in the house.”

Having said, “Open the door, courtesan’s son,” when he struck his hand on the door the door opened, and the water-pot was broken.

Then this woman asks for it, saying, “After thou hast broken my water-pot, give it to me immediately.”

The man said, “I will bring a water-pot and give you it.”

“I don’t want another; give me my very water-pot,” she says.

Thereupon, being unable to escape from this woman, having said, “For the debt of the elephant let the water-pot be substituted,” the man who owned the elephant went away.

A variant related by a Potter is nearly similar, except that both persons instituted lawsuits for the recovery of the elephant and the waterpot. The judge who tried the cases was the celebrated Mariyada Raman, termed by the narrator “Mariyaddurame,” a word which suggests the name Amir Abd ur-Rahman.