Krilof and His Fables/The False Accusation

There lived in the East a certain Brahmin, who, though fervently orthodox in his words, was not so in his way of life. Even among Brahmins there are hypo­crites: but that is beside the mark. This only is to the point, that he alone of all the brotherhood was a man of that kind. All the rest were men of holy lives, and—what was, above all things, distasteful to our friend—their chief was of an exceedingly strict character, so that no one could ever venture to break the rules.

But our Brahmin did not lose courage. A fast-day comes, but he meditates as to whether it may not be possible for him to obtain a secret indulgence for something luscious. Having laid his hands on an egg, and having waited till midnight, he lights a candle and sets to work to cook his egg above it. Steadily does he turn the egg above the flame, never takes his eyes off it, and already swallows it in an­ticipation. Meanwhile he thinks about his chief, chuckling to himself,

"You won't find me out, my long-bearded friend! This egg anyhow I shall eat with relish."

But at this moment the chief suddenly enters the Brahmin's ​cell, and, at the sight of such a sin, asks in a terrible voice what the Brahmin has to say for himself.

The proof is there before his eyes: it is too late to deny the fact.

"Forgive me my sin! holy father, forgive!" the Brahmin implores between his tears. "I cannot tell what led me into this temptation. Ah, yes! it was the accursed Evil One who put the idea into my head."

But at that moment a little demon cried out from behind the stove:

"What a shame it is to be always calumniating us! Why, I myself have just been taking a lesson from you; for, I assure you, this is the first time I ever saw how to cook eggs at a candle."