Renouncing the World

A couple, having renounced the world, undertook a pilgrimage to various religious shrines.

Once, the husband, who had walked a little ahead of the wife, spied a diamond lying on the road. He immediately scratched the ground to hide it. He feared that if his wife found it, she might be moved by avarice and lose the merit of her renunciation.

While he was thus busy, the wife came up to him and asked what he was doing.

He gave her an evasive reply.

She noticed the diamond, however, and guessing his motivations, asked him…