Once upon a time there was a town called Atpat.  In it there lived a Brahman.  He had a disciple who used every day to go to the village pond and bathe and worship the god Shiva.  On the way he had to walk through the sandy island in the dry bed of the river.  And, as he went home across the island, he used to hear a voice cry, “Shall I come?  Shall I come?  Shall I come?”; but when he looked round he could see no one.  The Brahman’s disciple at last got so frightened that he withered up until he became as dry and as thin as a bone.  At last the Brahman said, “You have no wish to eat or drink; yet you are so thin.  What is the reason?” The boy replied, “I neither wish to eat, nor want to eat, nor crave to eat.  But I am frightened out of my wits.  For whenever I come back from my bath I hear a voice behind me call out, ’Shall I come?  Shall I come?  Shall I come?’; but when I look round there is no one there.”  The Brahman said, “Do not be afraid, and when you next hear the voice, do not look behind you, but call out as boldly as you can, ‘Come along, come along, come along.’” Next day the disciple went as usual to his bath in the village pond.  He worshipped the god Shiva, and as he came home he heard the cry behind him, “Shall I come?  Shall I come?  Shall I come?” The boy was very frightened, but he did not look behind him.  In a short time he mastered his fears, and then in a voice like a bull roaring he cried out, “Come along, come along, come along.”  At last he reached home, calling all the time and without once looking behind him.

The Brahman looked up as the disciple came in, and he saw that just behind was walking a young girl.  He at once married the girl to his disciple and gave them a house to live in close by his own.  Now, on the first Monday in the month of Shravan, or August, the disciple got up and said to his wife, “I am going out to worship the god Shiva.  But do not wait for me.  Just eat your breakfast directly you feel hungry.”  He went out, and in a little time his wife began to feel hungry.  Nevertheless, she knew that, in spite of what her husband had said, she ought not to eat anything while he was worshipping Shiva.  So she waited for a little time, but at last she got so terribly hungry that she could not wait any more.  So she sat down and cooked her breakfast, and had just put one mouthful into her mouth when her husband came to the outer door.  “Wife, wife,” he called, “open the door!” Then the little wife got very frightened.  She pushed the uneaten breakfast under the bed, got up, washed her hands, and opened the door.  She then told her husband that she had waited for him, and she cooked a fresh breakfast, which both ate one after the other.  Next Monday exactly the same thing happened.  The little wife cooked her breakfast and was just beginning it when her husband came.  She then hid her uneaten breakfast under her bed and pretended that she had waited for his return.  And on the two following Mondays the naughty little wife deceived her husband in just the same way.