The Priest & the Kidnappers

One day, a priest from Benares was travelling along a road with one of his students when they were captured by a gang of 500 bandits, known as the Kidnapper Gang. The Gang demanded a ransom of 5,000 gold coins and sent the student to get it.

The kidnappers tied up the magic priest tightly and left him outside their cave for the night. They gave him nothing to eat or drink.

The priest was gifted with magical power - he only had to look up into the sky, clap his hands and chant a few magic words and a shower of precious jewels would rain down from the sky.

"Why should I suffer like this? I can magically pay my own ransom." The priest though.

So he told the bandits, "I will make you rich beyond your wildest dreams! But you must untie me, wash my head and face, dress me in new clothes, and cover me with flowers. Then, after so honouring me properly, leave me alone to do my magic."

The kidnappers followed his instructions. The priest did his magic and to the bandits' amazement, he was showered with the most beautiful jewels!

The Kidnapper Gang quickly grabbed all the precious stones. The wrapped them up in bundles and went off down the road, with the magic priest following behind.

One the way, they were stopped by another gang of 500 robbers. "Give us all your wealth!" demanded the second group of robbers.

"Leave us alone," the Kidnapper Gang pleaded. "You can get all the riches you want from this magic priest, just as we have done. He says magic words, looks up into the sky, claps his hands, and the most fabulous jewels come down!"

So the Robber Gang let the Kidnapper Gang go and surrounded the priest. They demanded that he make a shower of precious stones for them as well.

He said, "I can give you all the jewels you want. But you must be patient as the magic can only be performed when the planets are lined up properly, which happens only once a year. This lucky time has already passed. It will not happen again until next year. Come see me then, and I will be happy to make you rich!"

The robbers became angry and shouted at him, "Ah, you tricky, lying priest! You made the Kidnapper Gang wealthy but refuse to do the same for us. We'll teach you a lesson for taking us so lightly."

They cut him in two with a sharp sword and left both halves of his body in the middle of the road.

The robbers then chased after the Kidnapper Gang. There was a terrible bloody battle. After hours of fighting, they killed all 500 kidnappers and stole the wonderful jewels.

As soon as they left the battleground, the 500 robbers began quarrelling over their wealth. They broke up into 2 rival groups, which fought each other until only 2 robbers were left alive, one from each side.

These two collected all the valuable jewels and his them in the forest. The were very hungry so one guarded the treasure while the other started cooking rice. The one doing the guarding thought, "When the other is finished cooking, I will kill him and keep all this loot for myself." The one doing the cooking thought, "If we divide these jewels in two, I will get less. Therefore, I will add poison to this rice, kill him and keep all the jewels for myself. Why share, when I can have it all!"

So he ate some of the rice and poisoned the rest. He took the rice pot to the other and offered it to him. But the second robber immediately swung his sword and chopped off the cook's hear!

Then the hungry killer began gobbling up the poisoned rice. Withing minutes he dropped dead on the spot.

A few days later, the priest's student returned with the ransom money. He could not find his teacher of the Kidnapper Gang. Instead, he found only the worthless possessions they had left behind after getting the jewels.

Continuing down the road, he came to the two halves of his teacher's dead body. A little further down the road, he came upon the 500 dead bodies of the Kidnapper Gang. Further down the road, he started seeing the dead robbers. He started counting until he reached 498.

Then he saw the footprints of the last two going into the forest, followed them and saw a dead body slumped over the rice pot, and another without a head.

He thought, "It is so sad. My teacher had great knowledge, but not enough common sense. He could not resist using his magical power, regardless of the results. By causing the deaths of the 1,000 greedy gangsters, he doomed himself as well." He too the treasure back to the village and used it generously for the benefit of many.

Moral of the story: When power has no conscience, and greed has no limit, the killing has no end.

- a Buddhist tale


From the little book of Love Stories of a different kind