Narrated by Facundo Esquivel, a Tagalog from Jaen, Nueva Ecija, who was told the story when he was a boy.  
In time out of memory there lived two brothers, Pedro and Juan. Pedro was rich, for he had a large herd of cattle: consequently he did not have much use for his younger brother, who was very poor. Juan had nothing that he could call his own but a cow. One day, disappointed over his life of poverty, he killed his cow, and some days afterward he set out to find his fortune. He took nothing with him but the hide of his cow. When he reached the next town, he saw large piles of cattle-hides in front of a butcher’s shop. Late that night he stole out secretly and put the skin of his cow in one of the piles. The next morning he went to the shop to talk with the butcher.
 
“Mr. Butcher,” he said, “I have come here to look for my lost cow. Have you not killed a cow with a mark J on the right hip?”
 
“No,” answered the honest man, “all the cows which were killed here came from my herd out there in the mountains.”
 
Juan stood musing for a few moments, and then said, “Let us look through these piles of hide to see whether you killed my cow or not!”
 
[189]“All right,” answered the butcher, and so they began the investigation.
 
When they found the hide which Juan had put there, he began to quarrel with the man. “You must pay me five hundred pesos for my cow, or else I shall bring a law-suit before the court against you,” he said angrily.
 
“I wonder how this could have happened!” the butcher exclaimed.
 
“There is no use of wondering,” said Juan impatiently. “You stole my cow, and now you have to pay for it.” The man, who was very much afraid of being brought before the court, gave Juan the five hundred pesos; and Juan went away with the money in his pocket, and the hide on his head.
 
On his way home he came to a............