5.10. The Goldsmith (suvarṇakāra)

Kṣemendra also satirizes those businessmen who spread corruption in the field of business. He exposes how the wicked business persons loot the common people. They earn money by foul means and by malpractices. Kṣemendra realizes that if the people wish the world to be a better place to live in, the persons should be honest, trustworthy and excellent then all would be satisfied. But the author observes that they are looting common people applying different tricky arts.

Kṣemendra exposes how a wicked goldsmith loots money from the customers by his crooked tricks. According to him, he is a yogī in the art of thieving.^[1] Gold is considered as the most valuable and worthy, but according to Kṣemendra the cunning goldsmith can instantly rob the glow of gold by their impure touch. He calls him a caṇḍāla.^[2] Kṣemendra reveals sixty four tricky arts applied by a goldsmith to cheat the customers. He points out that the goldsmith deceives a customer during the time of weighting; he applies different tricks to distract the attention of the customer; so that he can easily steal gold. He mixes up different metals with gold to show it as real. Kṣemendra points out that even thousands of eyes can never recognize their art of stealing gold.^[3] He ridicules the goldsmith when he says that the goldsmith is expert in stealing gold only because of his previous birth. The author believes that he was a rat and now reborn in the form of a goldsmith.^[4]