So Ledha was saved from the leopard, but he did not know his way out of the jungle.  He wandered about, till he came to the place where the wild buffaloes used to sleep at night, and he swept up the place and made it clean and then took refuge in a hollow tree; he stayed there some days, sweeping up the place daily and supporting himself on the fruit of a fig-tree.  At last one day the buffaloes left one cow behind to watch and see who it was who swept up their sleeping place.  The cow pretended to be too ill to rise, and Ledha after watching for some time came out and swept the ground as usual, and then tried to pull the sick cow up by the tail; but she would not move so he went back to his hollow tree.  When the buffaloes returned they heard that it was a kindhearted man who cleaned their sleeping place; so they called Ledha out and said that they would keep him as their servant to clean their sleeping place and to scrub them when they bathed in the river; they made him taste the milk of all the cows and appointed the cow whose milk he liked best to supply him.  Thenceforward he used to wander about with the buffaloes and he made a flute and used to play on it.

One day after scrubbing the buffaloes he washed his head in the river and some of his hairs came out; so he wrapped them up in a leaf and set the packet to float down the stream.  Lower down the stream two princesses were bathing with their attendants, and when they saw the packet they tried who could fish it out and it was the younger princess who caught it.  Then they measured the hairs and found them twelve cubits long.  The princess who had taken the packet from the water went home and took to her bed and said that she would not eat until the man was found to whom the hairs belonged.  Her father, the Raja, sent messengers in all directions to search for the man but they could not find him.  Then he sent a parrot and the parrot flew up high and looking down saw Ledha with the buffaloes in the forest; but it did not dare to go near, so the parrot returned and told the Raja that the man was in the forest but that no messenger could approach for fear of the wild buffaloes.  However a crow said, “I can bring him if any one can,” so they sent the crow and it went and perched on the backs of the buffaloes and began to peck them; then Ledha threw stones at it, but it would not go away; then he threw a stick at it and last of all he threw his flute.  The crow caught up the flute and flew up to a tree with it.  Ledha ran after it, but the crow kept flying on a short distance and Ledha still pursued until he came to the Raja’s city.  The crow flew on till it entered the room where the princess lay, and dropped the flute into the hands of the princess.  Ledha followed right into the room and they shut him in and the princess gave him his flute after he had promised to marry her.