An old Komati observed a thief at dead of night lurking under a pomegranate tree, and cried out to his wife to bring him a low stool. On this he seated himself in front of the thief, and bawled out for hot water, which his wife brought him. Pretending that he was suffering from severe tooth-ache, he gargled the water, and spat it out continuously at the wondering thief. This went on till daybreak, when he called out his neighbours, who captured the thief, and handed him over to the police. The Komati and his Cakes. A Komati was on his way to the weekly market, with his plate of cakes to sell there. A couple of thieves met him when he was half way there, and, after giving him a severe thrashing, walked off with the cakes. The discomfited Komati, on his way back home with the empty plate, was met by another Komati going to market with his cakes. The latter asked how the demand for cakes was at the market, and the former replied "Why go to the market, when half-way people come and demand your cakes?" and passed on. The unsuspecting Komati went on, and, like the other, was the recipient of a sound thrashing at the hands of the thieves. The Komati and the Scorpion. A number of Komatis went one day to a temple. One of them put one of his fingers into the navel of the image of Vinayakan (the elephant god) at the gateway, when a scorpion, which was inside it, stung him. Putting his finger to his nose, the Komati remarked "What a fine smell! I have never experienced the like." This induced another man to put his finger in, and he too was stung, and made similar pretence. All of them were thus stung in succession, and then consoled each other. The Komati and the Milk Tax. Once upon a time, a great king levied a tax upon milk, and all his subjects were sorely tried by it. The Komatis, who kept cows, found the tax specially inconvenient. They, therefore, bribed the minister, and mustered in strength before the king, to whom they spoke concerning the oppressive nature of the tax. The king asked what their profit from the milk was. "A pie for a pie" said they to a man, and the king, thinking that persons who profit only a pie ought not to be troubled, forthwith passed orders for the abolition of the tax. The Komati and the Pandyan King.