ABSTRACT
Despite his wife’s objections, Muli takes a job as farm servant of Jadu, a wealthy Brah man miser who is renowned for cheating his employees. Men work for Jadu only if they can find no other work or if they need something special from him. Muli hopes that the miser, because of his high social status, will resolve Muli’s longstanding quar rel with his father and mother. The miser never attempts to settle Muli’s family dispute, but instead continually cheats him. Muli gives a devastating caricature of the miser, but a moving portrayal of the miser’s long-suffering wife, who tries to be generous to Muli, the employee.
Throughout the narrative, Muli provides a wealth of detail and character devel opment that brings his story to life: plowing with reluctant bullocks, receiving a betel from a man who meets him in the field, watching Jadu the miser bargain and cheat in the market, and listening to Jadu ‘s wife complain about her husband’s stinginess.
