39.   Our noble birth may go to the lower regions; our virtues may perish; our moral character may fall as if from a lofty mountain; our family may be consumed by fire; a thunderbolt may strike our might as it were an enemy: let us keep our money, for without this all the collected virtues are but a heap of grass.

40.   These are all the same senses–exactly the same action–the same intellect undiminished: the same voice. But though a man may remain exactly what he was, yet, when deprived of the warmth which wealth gives him, he becomes some one altogether different. This is indeed wonderful!

41.   If a man be wealthy, he is of good family, he is wise, he is learned in the Scriptures, he is virtuous, eloquent, beautiful. All the virtues attach themselves to gold.

42.   A king is ruined through evil counsellors: an ascetic through society: a child by spoiling: a priest by not studying the Sacred Scriptures: a family by the evil behaviour of children: good manners by evil habits: modesty by wine: agriculture by want of care: affection by absence from home: friendship by want of love: possessions by mismanagement: money by waste and prodigality.

43.   Giving, consuming, and loss, are the three ways by which wealth is diminished. The man who neither gives nor spends has yet the third way open to him.

44.   A jewel is cut by the polishing stone; a conqueror in war is killed by weapons; the elephant is weakened by passion; the islands in a river become dry in the autumn; the moon wanes; young women become languid through pleasure, yet is their beauty nothing lessened: so noble men who have diminished their wealth by giving to the needy are still illustrious.

45.   A man who is famishing longs for a handful of grain; but when he has revived, he looks on the whole earth as a mere handful of grass. So objects seem great or small according to the condition of the men who possess them: it is the change in men’s fortune which makes things seem greater or smaller.

46. If, O king! if you would enjoy this earth, which is as fruitful as a cow, nourish it as carefully as you would a calf. The earth brings forth fruits without end like the creeper of plenty if it is perpetually and carefully cultivated.

47. The behaviour of kings is as uncertain as the way of a courtesan. Now it is false, now true–now with harsh, now with agreeable words–now cruel, now merciful–at one time liberal, at another covetous–either always squandering money or heaping it together.

48.   Authority, fame, the guarding of Brahmans, liberality, feasting, protection of friends : what profit is there to those who serve kings if they have not gained these six blessings?

49.   Whatever fate has written on the forehead of each, that shall he obtain, whether it be poverty or riches. His abode may be the desert, but he shall gain no more if he live even on Mount Meru. Let your mind be constant. Do not be miserable through envy of the rich. The pitcher takes up the same quantity of water whether it be from the well or the ocean.

50.   “Who does not know that thou, O cloud, art the one support of the Châtaka? Why, O most beneficent cloud! dost thou wait for our cry of misery?”

51.   “Ah! beloved Châtaka, hear and listen attentively to what I tell thee. The heavens have many clouds, but they are not all alike; some water the earth, others thunder and pour forth no rain.” Do not degrade yourself by asking alms of any one whom you may chance to meet.