Thus absorbed in the business and cares of this world, the man went on his way. Alas! never, never was he to possess the treasure which he delayed to search for! On the very day on which he concluded a bargain which made him the richest merchant in the city, even on the night on which he had feasted at the house of a prince, he was smitten down by cholera. Biharí Lal died in much suffering; his body was burned, and his ashes were cast into the Ganges. Never did he find the treasures of Pardon, Purity, and Heaven! The acceptable time for Biharí Lal had passed for ever away!