Towards morning Lita woke up and missed his wife, so he lit a lamp to look for her and then saw the pool of blood under the bed.  At this sight he was terror stricken.  Some enemy had killed and carried off his wife and he would be charged with the murder.  So he lay there wondering what would happen to him.  At last his mother came into the room to see why he and his wife had not got up as usual and when she saw the blood she raised a cry; the village headman and chowkidar were sent for and they questioned Lita, but he could only say that he knew nothing of what had happened; he did not know what the blood was, he did not know where his wife was.  Thereupon they sent two men to the house of the wife’s parents to see if by any chance she had run away there and in any case to bring her relations to be present at the enquiry into her disappearance.  When her father and brothers heard what had happened they at once went to Lita’s house in wrath and abused him as a murderer.  They asked why, if his wife had not done her duty to him, he had not sent her back to them to be chastised and taught better, instead of murdering her and they went straight to the magistrate and complained:  the magistrate sent police who arrested Lita and took him before the magistrate.

Meanwhile it had become known that not only was Lita’s wife missing but also her lover; and Lita’s father presented a petition to the magistrate bringing this to notice and asserting that the two must have run away together.  Then the magistrate ordered every search to be made for the missing couple but said that Lita must remain in custody till they were found, so he was shut up in prison.  From prison he made an application to the magistrate that his three tame animals, the cat and the otter and the rat might be brought to the place where he was; the magistrate kindly consented but the animals were not allowed into the prison.  However at night the rat being small made its way inside and found out Lita, and asked what was to be done.  Lita said that he wanted the three animals to save him from his great danger as he had saved them; he wanted them to trace his wife and her lover and recover the ring; they would doubtless find them living in some gorgeous palace, the gift of the ring.

The rat went out and gave the other two Lita’s message and they readily undertook to do their best; so the next morning the three animals set off.  In vain they hunted all over the country, till one day they came to the bank of the Ganges and there on the other side they saw a palace shining like gold.  At this their hopes revived, for this might be a palace made by the magic ring.  But the cat and the rat objected that they could not cross the river.  The otter said that he would easily manage that and he took the cat on his back and the rat climbed on to the back of the cat and so the otter ferried them both across the river; then they consulted and decided that it would be safest to wait till the evening before