TEACHING IN ANCIENT FABLES

Fable 12

Once there lived a poor artist who left his home, leaving his wife, to seek his fortune. After three years of hard struggles he had saved three hundred pieces of gold and decided to return to his home. On this way he came to a great temple in which a grand ceremony of offering was in progress. He was greatly impressed by it and thought to himself: “Hitherto, I have thought only of the present; I have never considered my future happiness. It is a part of my good fortune that I have come to his place; I must take advantage of it to plant seeds of merit.” Thinking thus, he gratefully donated all his savings to the temple and returned to his home penniless.

When he reached home, his wife reproached him, for not bringing her some money for her support. The poor artist replied that he had earned some money but had put it where it would be safe. When she pressed him to tell where he had hidden it, he confessed that he had given it to the monks at a certain temple.

This made the wife angry and she scolded her husband and finally carried the matter to the local judge. When the judge asked the artist for his defence, the artist said that he had not acted foolishly, for he had earned the money during long and hard struggles and wanted to use it as seed for future good fortune. When he came to the temple it seemed to him that there was the field where he should plant his gold as seed for good fortune. Then he added: “When I gave the monks the gold, it seemed that I was throwing away all greed and stinginess from my mind, and I have realized that real wealth is not gold but mind.”

The judge praised the artist’s spirit, and those who heard of this manifested their approval by helping him in various ways. Thus the artist and his wife entered into permanent good fortune.

The above TEACHING IN ANCIENT FABLES is taken from THE TEACHING OF BUDDHA. May all who reads this article gain in wisdom and be well and happy. Sadhu! Sadhu! Sadhu!

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