"The Shroud" follows Ghisu and Madhav, a poor father and son from the "untouchable" caste. There are many jobs available in the farming village where they live. However, Ghisu and Madhav are lazy slackers who prefer not to work. The men get by by stealing food and working only occasionally, when they need to.
Madhav's young wife, Budhiya, is in labor. She screams and moans in pain. Ghisu and Madhav think she is dying but they don't go in to see her. Instead, they eat stolen potatoes and long for a fine feast. They fall asleep and in the morning they find Budhiya and her baby dead.
The men beg the village landlord and the other villagers for money to give Budhiya a proper funeral. They manage to collect five rupees, and with this money they go to the market to buy a burial shroud for Budhiya's body. At the market, they look at various cloth-seller's shops but do not buy anything. They remark that a shroud is a waste since it will only burn with the body anyway.
By nighttime, they arrive at a wine-house and go in. Eventually, they spend all of the donated money on alcohol and food rather than on a shroud for Budhiya. At the wine-house the men become increasingly elevated. They dance, sing, and say Budhiya will go to heaven. Finally, the men become so drunk that they collapse.
