Summary

"A Horse and Two Goats" is the story of a comical and fateful meeting between two men, neither of who speak each other's language.

Muni and his wife live in poverty in a remote village in India called Kritam. In his prosperous days, before pestilence took most of his cattle, Muni had 40 sheep and goats. Now, in his old age, Muni has just two goats. His usual daily routine is to take the goats to graze two miles from his home, alongside the highway, at the foot of a life-sized clay statue of a horse. Muni never thinks about the statue. It has been there since before he was born and is just part of the landscape, as far as he is concerned.

On this particular morning, Muni goes outside and shakes six bean-like fruits, called drumsticks, from the branches of...