One of his villagers was an incorrigible idler, and a vehement opposer to all of his plans.The man's house was in a tottering state, and his poverty he would recount to his neighbors as a sure sign of the weakness of the new administration. It happened that a certain of the governor's household was under the man's manure-shed, which, by the negligence of many years, was in so rotten a state that a slight touch brought it down to the ground. The man's wrath knew no end. With a club he came out, gave a blow or two to the suppliant transgressor, and pursued after him till he reached his master's house. There in the front of the governor's gate the man stood, and recited to the hearing of a large crowd that gathered around him, the severe ills he suffered, and the governor's inability to give peace and order to the district. Sontok ordered the man to his presence, and in the mildest possible way, begged forgiveness for his servant's transgression, and continued :"Seeing that your manure-shed was in so fragile a state, I am afraid your residence also is not in the best of conditions.""You know I am a poor man," the man bluntly replied, "and I am unable to repair my house.""So," was the gentle answer of the moralist. "How is it then if we send men to repair it for you? Will you give your consent to it?"Taken with surprise, and already a sense of shame coming over him, the man replied."Could I object to so kind a proposal? That is a mercy too great for me."He was at once sent back to his home, to pull down the old house, and to prepare the ground for the erection of the new.
The next day, the governor's men appeared with all preparations for the new structure, and within a few weeks there was finished one of the nicest-looking houses in the whole neighborhood. The manure-shed also was repaired, so that it could stand any man's touch. The worst of the villagers was thus brought down. Ever afterward none remained more faithful to the governor than this man. Tears always gushed out when he told afterward of the real humiliation he experienced then. Once discontent became general among the villagers, and no "art of love" could subdue it. Our governor thought he himself was to be blamed for all such. ''Heaven punishes thus my lack in sincerity," he said to himself. One day he disappeared suddenly from among his people, and they all became uneasy about his whereabout. Some days after it was found that he had resorted to a distant Buddhist temple,there to pray and to meditate, but chiefly to fast for one-and-twenty days, that he might be furnished with more sincerity in leading his people. Men were sent thither to entreat him for his speedy return, as his absence meant anarchy among his people, who now had learnt that they could not get along without him. The term of his tasting over, he strengthened himself with a slight meal, and "the day after his three weeks' abstinence from food he walked twenty-five miles to his villages, rejoicing in his heart to hear of the repentance of his people." The man must have had an iron constitution with him.