The Financial Expert (1952) sounds much like a fable. It is the story of Margayya, a man first seen under a banyan tree with a tin box, eking out an existence by advising peasants in obtaining loans from a co-operative institution. He is then seen acquiring considerable wealth through questionable means, only to lose everything and return to the banyan tree with his tin box and a condition close to penury. Narayan's point seems to be a simple but profound one: the wealth Margayya acquired was illusory; true riches can never accrue when one makes money into a god.

The Financial Expert probes dubious paths to wealth: Margayya's work as a "financial expert"; his successful stint as a publisher of a semipornographic book by a Dr. Lal that masquerades as a work on domestic harmony; and his phase as a moneylender who bases his business on the...