there is very little in the house, you must try to get some sort of a dinner ready.  Go upstairs and scrape together all the grain there is in the grain-jars and make bread with it.  For vegetables you had better gather grass and make some chutney out of clover leaves.”  When the Brahman had left, his little daughter-in-law followed his orders as best she could.  There was in the jar upstairs only grain for half an ordinary loaf.  So she made tiny, tiny loaves and prepared some vegetables out of grass and made some clover chutney.  Then she sat down to wait for the family’s return from the field.  As she did so, Saturn came disguised as a beggar all covered with sores, and cried, “O Lady!  I am aching all over:  give me hot water to bathe in and oil to rub myself with, and then give me something to eat.”  The little daughter-in-law felt very sorry for the poor beggar.  She went inside and got him a few drops of oil and warmed some water for his bath, and then gave him one of the tiny loaves to eat.  The beggar ate it, and then gave her his blessing, saying, “You will never want for anything.”  He then folded up the leaves from which he had eaten, stuck them into a corner of the eaves, and disappeared.

Shortly afterwards the family came home and found a splendid dinner waiting for them.  They said to themselves, “Where did this all come from?  There was practically nothing in the house.”  Next Saturday another daughter-in-law stayed at home.  Again Saturn in the guise of a beggar covered with sores came to the house.  He asked as before for hot water, oil, and food.  But his daughter-in-law said, “I have nothing to give you.”  The god pressed her, saying, “Give me a little of anything that you have.”  But the daughter-in-law repeated, “I have nothing.”  The god replied, “Very well, you will lose that little you have.”  With this threat he disappeared.  But, when the daughter-in-law went upstairs to fetch grain for dinner, she could find nothing in any of the jars.  Shortly afterwards the family came home, but there was no dinner for them.  So they all got angry with the daughter-in-law, and, although she told them about the beggar, they scolded her harder than ever.  A third Saturday came round, and a third daughter-in-law remained at home.  Again Saturn came, and the third daughter-in-law behaved just as the second had done.  She gave the god neither hot water, oil, nor food.  And the god told her that she should lose the little she had.  When the family came home there was no dinner for them, and they scolded the third daughter-in-law just as hard as they had scolded the second one.