Question

During the reign of King Veer, there lived a wise magistrate. Hartpant's verdicts were always just and people from all over the vast kingdom came to him in order to settle their disputes. In the city where Haripant lived, there was a greedy ghee merchant named Niranjan. He always kept twenty barrels of ghee. Of these, fifteen would contain good quality ghee and the remaining would be adulterated. He would mix the two and sell it. This went on for a long time, till finally the people fed up of being cheated, complained to Hartpant.          Hartpant had the ghee examined and found it to be adulterated. He gave Niranjan a choice of punishment-drink the five barrels of adulterated ghee from his shop, or receive a hundred lashings, or pay a thousand gold coins to the treasury. Niranjan thought for a while. Losing a thousand gold coins was too much and a hundred lashings too painful. So he decided to drink the five barrels of ghee. Though Niranjan sold adulterated goods in his shop, he made sure his own food was of the best quality. So after drinking one barrel of ghee he began to feel sick. By the second barrel, he was vomiting. At this point he decided to opt for the lashings instead. But he was pampered and his body was unused to any harsh treatment. After ten lashes, he started trembling and by twenty he was giddy. 'Stop!' he screamed. 'I will pay the thousand gold coins!' And he handed them over.         So he ended up suffering all three punishments, something he did not forget in a hurry and the people of the city got to use only the best quality ghee in their food from then on!.

What made Niranjan opt for paying the fine last of all?

Options

• He would be deeply in debt if he paid it.

• He knew Hartpant would keep the money for himself.

• No one was willing to lend him money.

• He could not bear to part with such a huge sum.

Answer 1

He could not bear to part with such a huge sum.