SHAN'S LUCKY KNIFE

Shan was a country boy from the Burmese hills. He longed to find a way to earn some money, but refused staunchly to part with the kan his father taught him to play and the bag his mother made him. At last he was offered a job as boatman on Ko Tin's boat to Rangoon. People warned him that Ko Tin would trick him, but Shan thought he was smart too. But it took two trips and the loss of his bag and his kan and his wages before he learned that only a trick would serve to pay back the crooked Ko Tin. Here's a folk tale from Burma, in a story of a country boy pitted against a city merchant. One finds onesself on the side of Shan, even if the issue is cloudy.