Now it is long ago. In the capital there was a man who traded in mercury. He had gone back and forth to Ise for many years for his business and had a great fortune. He always traveled between the capital and Ise with over a hundred horses loaded with silk, thread, floss, rice and other goods, but he had only small children drive the horses and took no guards. Even so, for many years he was never attacked by thieves.
But once, on the way up from Ise to the capital, as he was crossing Suzuka Mountain, more than eighty thieves appeared, scattered the loaded horses and the children driving them, and took everything. The mercury merchant barely escaped, climbed a high peak, looked up at the sky and said, "My fortune, that took me so many days and months to win," and shouted loudly, "Where are you, where are you? You're late, you're late!"
After a while a single fearsome bee, about three inches long, came flying and circling through the sky and settled on a branch of a tall tree nearby. Seeing it, the merchant prayed all the more earnestly. Then the sky went dark, and something like a red cloud some twenty feet long stretched out and came down into the valley where the thieves were. It was a countless swarm of bees.
The thieves were dividing up the loot, but the swarm settled on each of them by the hundreds and stung, and every one was stung to death. The merchant went down into the valley, took back everything that had been stolen, and even got the treasure the thieves had stored up from before, and returned to the capital.
In fact the merchant brewed wine at home, gave it to bees and kept them with great care. Since even bees know gratitude, how much more should people have hearts that know it.