After all four treasures were found, they had a palace built to replace their house on stilts.  Their children’s children lived there after them, and still the treasures were not exhausted.

The moral of this tale is that a wife’s virtue may add to her husband’s karma and so protect him.

The lazy brothers

There was once pair of hardworking parents who had a pair of lazy children.  The elder son was named Chan, and his younger brother was called Son.  They grew up strong and healthy but never worked, no matter what their parents said to them.

The day was drawing near when the parents would insist that the children help them plant rice in the field, or else they would not have enough to eat. The boys made a pact to run away together before that day arrived.  Chan went to his parents and said: “We are afraid that soon you will put us to work, which would be intolerable for us. However, we do not expect you to work for us all your lives.  So, as we don’t ever want to work, we ask your permission to go out into the world in search of our fortune instead.”

History does not say how the parents answered their sons.  All we know is that the boys were soon on their way.  They fed themselves with wild fruits and anything else that seemed edible and slept in the open air.

After several days, they met a tall old gentleman – a sorcerer, though the children did not know that.  He said, “If you stay here and help me, I will teach you to read and write.”

“No thank you,” replied Chan. “Why should we have to work or learn to read and write?” But they stayed with him for two days anyway, lying about and staring at the clouds.  Upon their departure, the old man offered them food for their journey, but the boys refused because they did not want to carry anything.

Then the kind old man gave them each a sword, saying: “With these swords you can, working together, defeat an army.  Moreover, if you are separated and one of you dies, the other sword will go rusty.  This rusty sword will lead you to your brother and with it you can bring him back to life.”