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Long ago in India, a man gave his son fifty kan in coins and sent him to a neighboring country to buy precious things. As the son walked along the bank of a great river, he saw a man in a boat. Looking toward the boat, he noticed a turtle stretching its neck out over the side. He stopped and asked, “What do you mean to do with that turtle?” “Kill it for food,” the man replied. When the son offered to buy it, the boatman said, “I obtained this turtle for a very important occasion. Its price would be exceedingly high,” and declared that he would not sell it. But the son persisted, rubbing his hands in entreaty, until at last he bought the turtle for all fifty kan and set it free. Then he thought, “My father sent me to the neighboring country to buy precious things, and I have spent all his money on a turtle. How angry he will be! Yet I cannot very well stay away from home forever.” So he set off for his father’s house. On the way, he met someone who told him, “The man who sold a turtle here overturned his boat at the crossing downstream and drowned.” Hearing this, the son continued home, intending to explain that he had spent the money on a turtle. But before he could speak, his father asked, “Why did you send this money back?” “I did no such thing,” the son answered. “This is what happened: I used the money to buy a turtle and set it free. I have come home to tell you about it.” His father said, “Five men dressed in black, all looking alike, came here carrying ten kan apiece. Here is the money,” and showed it to him. The coins were still wet. It was the turtle he had bought and released: seeing the money fall into the river, it had retrieved it and sent it to his father before the son reached home.