Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta was king of Benares, there stood near Benares a great town of carpenters, containing a thousand families. The carpenters from this town used to profess that they would make a bed, or a chair, or a house, and after receiving a large advance from men’s hands, they proved able to make nothing whatever. The people used to upbraid every carpenter they met with, and interfered with them. So those debtors were so much harassed that they could live there no longer. “Let us go into some foreign land,” said they, “and find some place or other to dwell in;” so to the forest they went.

They cut down trees, they built a mighty ship, and launched her in the river, and took her away from that town, and at a distance of some three-quarters of a league they laid her up. Then in the middle of the night they returned to the town to fetch their families, whom they conveyed on board ship, and then proceeded in due course to the ocean. There they sailed at the wind’s will, until they reached an island that lay in the midst of the sea. Now in that island grew wild all manner of plants and wild fruit-trees, rice, sugar-cane, banana, mango, rose-apple, jack, cocoanut, and what not. There was another man who had been shipwrecked and had taken possession of that island before them, and lived therein, eating the rice and enjoying the sugar-cane and all the rest, by which he had grown stout and sturdy; naked he went, and his hair and beard were grown long. The carpenters thought, “If this island is haunted of demons, we shall all perish; so we will explore it.” Then seven brave men with weapons, disembarked and explored that island. At that moment the castaway had just broken his fast, and drunk of the juice of the sugar-cane, and in high contentment was lying on his back in a lovely spot, in cool shade; he sang for joy, and was at the height of bliss.

The scouts who were exploring the isle caught the sound of his singing, and said, “it seems the voice of man that we hear; let us make acquaintance with him.” Following the sound, they came upon the man, but his aspect horrified them. “It is a goblin!” they cried, and put arrow to bow. When the man saw them, he was in fear of being wounded, so he called out–“I am not a goblin, sirs, but a man; spare my life!”

“What!” said they, “do men go all naked and defenceless like you?” and asked him again and again, only to receive the same answer, that he was a man. At last they approached him, and all began to talk pleasantly together, and the new–comers asked how he came thither. The other told them the truth of it. “As a reward for your good deeds you have come here,” said he, “this is a first-rate island. No need here to work with your hands for a living; of rice and sugar–cane, and all the rest, there is no end here, and all growing wild; you may live here without anxiety.” “Is there nothing else,” they asked, “to hinder our living here?” “No fear is there but this; the isle is haunted by demons, and the demons would be incensed to see the excretions of your bodies; so when you would relieve yourselves, dig a hole in the sand and hide it there. That is the only danger; there is no other; only always be careful on this point.”

Then they took up their abode in the place.

But among these thousand families there were two master workmen, one at the head of each five hundred of them; and one of these was foolish and greedy of the best food, the other wise and not bent on getting the nest of everything.

In course of time as they continued to dwell there, all grew stout and sturdy. Then they thought, “We have not been merry men this long time; we will make some toddy from the juice of the sugar-cane.” So they caused the strong drink to be made, and being drunken, sang, danced, sported, then in thoughtlessness relieved themselves here, there, and everywhere without hiding it, so that they made the island foul and disgusting. The deities were incensed because these men made their playing-place all foul. “Shall we bring the sea over it,” they deliberated, “and cleanse the island? – This is the dark fortnight; now our gathering is broken up. Well, on the fifteenth day from now, at the first of the full moon, at the time of the moon’s rising, we will bring up the sea and make an end of them all.” Thus they fixed the day. At this a righteous deity who was one of them thought, “I would not that these should perish before my eyes.” So in his compassion, at the time when the men were sitting at their doors in pleasant converse, after their evening meal, he made the whole island one blaze of light, and adorned in all splendor stayed poised in the air towards the north, and spoke to them thus: “O! carpenters! The deities are wroth with you. Dwell no longer in this place, for in half a month from this time, the deities will bring up the sea, and destroy you one and all. Therefore flee from this place.”

With this advice, he returned to his own place. He gone, another comrade of his, a cruel god, thought, “Perhaps they will follow his advice and escape; I will prevent their going, and bring them all to utter destruction.” So adorned in divine splendor, he made a great blaze of light over the whole place, and approaching them, remained poised in the air towards the south, as he asked, “Has there been a god here?” “There has,” was the reply. “What did he tell you?” they answered, “Thus and thus, my lord.” He then said, “This god does not wish you to live here, and in anger speaks. Go not elsewhere, but stay even here.”

Having thus offered to relieve their anxiety, he departed. When he was gone, the foolish carpenter lifted up his voice, and paying no heed to the saying of the righteous deity, he cried, “Let your honours listen to me!” and addressed all the carpenters:

“That god, who from the southern quarter clear

Cries out, All safe! from him the truth we hear;

Fear or fear not, the northern knows no whit:

Why grieve, then? Take your pleasure – never fear!”

On hearing him, the five hundred carpenters who were greedy of good things inclined to the counsel of the foolish carpenter. But then the wise carpenter refused to hear his words, and addressed the carpenters: “Come now, let us follow the words of both the deities. Let us build a ship, and then if the words of the words of the first be true, into that ship we will climb and depart; but if the words of the other be true, we will put the ship out of the way, and dwell here.” When he had thus spoken, said the foolish carpenter: “Go to! You see a crocodile in a teacup! You are too-too slow! The first god spake in anger against us, the second in affection. If we leave this choicest of isles, where shall we go? But if you needs must go, take your tail with you, and make your ship; we want no ship.”

The wise man with those that followed him, built a ship, and put all the fittings aboard, and he and the whole company stood in the ship. Then on the day of the full moon, at the time of moon-rising, up from the ocean a wave arose, and knee-deep it swept over the whole island. The wise man, when he observed the rising of the wave, cast loose the ship. Those of the foolish carpenter’s party, five hundred families they were, sat still, saying to one another, “A wave has arisen, to sweep over the island, but it will be no deeper.” Then the ocean-wave rose waist-deep, man-deep, deep as a palm-tree, as seven palm-trees, and over the whole island it rolled. The wise man, fertile in resource, not snared by greed of good things, departed in safety; but the foolish carpenter, greedy of good things, not regarding the fear of the future, with five hundred families was destroyed.