Early one morning, an old woman was walking from her village to the town, carrying a big sack of cabbages on her head. She was taking them to the market, where she hoped to sell them to the people from the town.
The road which the old woman was on was a narrow one over a mountain. There was a cliff on one side, and a wall of rock on the other. There was very little traffic at that early hour, but the old woman was walking carefully at the side of the road, because she did not want to have an accident and lose her cabbages, which she had grown herself.
But as she was climbing a steep hill, she suddenly heard a loud bell, and a bicycle came round the corner and passed her, going very fast down the hill. The old woman had to jump to one side so quickly that the sack of cabbages nearly fell into the ditch.
She looked up, and saw that a young girl from the town, wearing green trousers and a red blouse, was riding the bicycle. She was riding on without even looking round to see whether the old woman was all right.
The old woman began to shout. 'Come back, lady! Come back! You dropped something!'
The girl heard the old woman's shouts and stopped her bicycle so suddenly that she nearly fell off. Then she turned and began to push the bicycle back up the hill. She had ridden on quite a long way past the old woman, and the slope was steep, so she was quit hot and tired when she at last reached her again.
'What is it?' she asked. 'What did I drop?'
'Little lady,' the old woman answered, 'you dropped your manners.'