BUDDHA STORIES

One day, the chief queen of King Brahmadatta

wished to swim in the lake in the royal garden
and left her jewellery with the servant girls
before taking a dip in the water. Now, this
garden was home to many monkeys. One she-
monkey had been sitting on the branch. She got
particularly interested in a beautiful pearl
necklace that belonged to the queen. “Now I
know why the queen always looks so charming.
If I wear that pearl necklace, then I shall look as
beautiful as her,” thought she and waited
patiently for the right moment to steal the
necklace. After a while, when the servant girl
dozed off, the monkey swung down from the tree
and grabbed the necklace in a flash and
disappeared into the thick foliage of the tree.
When the news of the theft reached the King, he
ordered his guards to leave no stone unturned to
catch the thief. Just then a poor man was
passing by the garden. The hullabaloo from
inside the garden scared him and he ran away.
Seeing him run, the guards took him to be the
thief and after chasing him for some distance,
they captured him. When he was produced
before the king, he said he had stolen the
necklace and added that the chief financial
advisor had asked him to do so and that the
necklace should be with him. When the chief
financial advisor was questioned he passed the
responsibility to the royal priest, who in turn
passed it on to the chief court musician and he
again involved the chief court dancer. But when
the dancer was summoned to the court, she
denied the allegation altogether. At the end of
the day the king was confused and ordered all of
them be put behind bars.
The Bodhisattva, who was at that time a minister
to the king, did not quite believe that these
detainees were the actual culprits because the
theft had taken place inside the heavily guarded
garden. It would not be possible for any of them
to go and steal it from there. “I am sure they are
lying out of fear. The poor man must have
involved the advisor to save himself. The advisor
then must have involved the priest thinking that
it would be easier for him if he involved someone
very important. I believe the priest involved the
musician thinking that if all were imprisoned then
music could heal their pain and the musician felt
the same way when he involved

Once upon a time, there lived a shepherd boy who was bored watching his flock of
sheep on the hill. To amuse himself, he shouted, “Wolf! Wolf! The sheep are being
chased by the wolf!” The villagers came running to help the boy and save the
sheep. They found nothing and the boy just laughed looking at their angry faces.
“Don’t cry ‘wolf’ when there’s no wolf boy!”, they said angrily and left. The boy
just laughed at them.
After a while, he got bored and cried ‘wolf!’ again, fooling the villagers a second
time. The angry villagers warned the boy a second time and left. The boy
continued watching the flock. After a while, he saw a real wolf and cried loudly,
“Wolf! Please help! The wolf is chasing the sheep. Help!”
But this time, no one turned up to help. By evening, when the boy didn’t return
home, the villagers wondered what happened to him and went up the hill. The boy
sat on the hill weeping. “Why didn’t you come when I called out that there was a
wolf?” he asked angrily.