After resting for two hours, they again started walking. They took short rests along the way and arrived in Navsari at 5:30 P.M. Although they had covered about 24 miles from Surat to Navsari and were very tired, they were not dejected as they had been in Kaira. Each one of the mandali had been completely exhausted and depressed in Kaira, while the Master was quite cheerful and vigorous. But in Navsari the opposite occurred; while the mandali were found to be in good spirits, Baba did not appear well.
Baba had them camp in the Sohrab Garden of the Parsi dharamshala, which was situated in the center of the Zoroastrian community in Navsari. When they went to the well to draw water, the Parsi women and children began jeering. When the men sat down to their unvaried diet of plain dal and rice, the manager and other guests were astonished, since Parsis almost always eat meat with their meals. Oddly, however, another Parsi stranger came to the dharamshala requesting Meher Baba's darshan. The Master refused to see him and sent him the message that due to exhaustion, he wished to be alone that day. But the man insisted, so Baba sent Gustadji in his place and instructed him to pretend to be him! The Parsi had never seen Meher Baba and reverently offered namaskars. He respectfully greeted Gustadji with folded hands and then happily left. This unusual incident coincided with a dream Gustadji had recently had.
Meanwhile, some people spread the rumor in Navsari that a gang of thieves and dacoits [Baba and the mandali] had come to the dharamshala and that the local community should beware. Rustom had recently arrived from Ahmednagar and Baba immediately sent him to call Sorabji Desai. Sorabji was the literary scholar who had co-authored Sakorina Sadguru , the Gujarati biography of Upasni Maharaj, which was being printed in Navsari.
Just after Rustom left, several police officers arrived and began interrogating the mandali. Although the policemen's behavior was rude and insolent, the mandali meekly submitted to their questions and supplied them with all the necessary information about their identities and travels. The police questioned each man in detail and recorded his statements, but the men's peculiar dress still made them suspicious.
One of the detectives continued to pester them in an intimidating manner with impertinent questions. Baba then signaled Ramjoo to reply in a similar way, and his change of manner made the detective angry and he threatened to take them all into custody.