The Satanic Verses

It had been the habit of Srinivas the toy merchant to threaten his wife and children, from time to time, that one day, when the material world had lost its savour, he would drop everything, including his name, and turn sanyasi, wandering from village to village with a begging bowl and a stick. Mrs Srinivas treated these threats tolerantly, knowing that her gelatinous and good-humoured husband liked to be thought of as a devout man, but also a bit of an adventurer... the idea of becoming a mendicant holy man satisfied both needs.

Yet, when she saw his ample posterior so comfortably ensconced in an armchair on their front porch, looking out at the world through stout wire netting - or when she watched him playing with their youngest daughter, five-year-old Minoo - or when she observed that his appetite, far from diminishing to begging-bowl proportions, was increasing contentedly with the passing years - then Mrs Srinivas puckered up her lips, adopted the insouciant expression of a film beauty (though she was as plump and wobbling as her spouse) and went whistling indoors.

As a result, when she found his chair empty, with his glass of lime-juice unfinished on one of its arms, it took her completely by surprise.