Jataka 131
Asampadāna Jātaka
The Mistreated Gift
as told by Eric Van Horn
originally translated by Robert Chalmers, B.A., of Oriel College, Oxford University
originally edited by Professor Edward Byles Cowell, Cambridge University
This is a story where one of the heroes is a former servant of the Bodhisatta. It is a wonderful demonstration of kindness and humility for his once powerful owner.
“If a friend.” This story was told by the Master while he was at the Bamboo Grove. It is about Devadatta. At that time the monks were discussing the ingratitude of Devadatta in the Dharma Hall, and his inability to recognize the Master’s goodness. The Master himself entered and asked what they were discussing. When they told him he said, “Monks, this is not the first time that Devadatta has been ungrateful. He was just as ungrateful in days gone by.” So saying, he told this story of the past.
Once upon a time, when a certain king of Magadha was reigning in Rājagaha, the Bodhisatta was his treasurer. He was worth 800 million rupees and was known as the “Millionaire.”
At the same time in Benares there lived a treasurer who was also worth 800 million rupees. His name was Piliya. He was a great friend of the Millionaire.
For some reason or other Piliya of Benares got into difficulties. He lost all of his property, and he was reduced to nothing. In this dire condition he left Benares, and he traveled with his wife on foot to Rājagaha to see the Millionaire. This was his last hope.
The Millionaire embraced his friend and treated him as an honored guest. In due course he asked the reason for his visit. “I am a ruined man,” Piliya answered. “I have lost everything, and I have come to ask for your help.”
“With all my heart!” the Millionaire said. “Have no fear on that score.” He had his strong-room opened, and he gave 400 million rupees to Piliya. Then he divided all of his property in half, livestock and all, and in so doing gave half of his entire fortune to Piliya. Taking this bounty with him, Piliya and his wife went back to Benares to live once more.
Not long after this great misfortune came to the Millionaire, who, in his turn, lost everything he had. When he was trying to decide what to do, he thought about how he had given half of his fortune Piliya. He decided to go to Piliya and ask for his help. So he set out from Rājagaha with his wife and went to Benares.
When he got to the entrance to the city he said to her, “Wife, it is not fitting for you to trudge along the streets with me. Wait here until I can send a carriage with a servant to bring you into the city in a proper way.” So saying, he left her under a shelter and went into the city alone.
He went to Piliya’s house where he asked to be announced as the Millionaire from Rājagaha who had come to see his friend.
“Well, show him in,” Piliya said. But when he saw the condition of the Millionaire, he did not get up to meet him. Nor did he greet him with words of welcome. He only demanded to know why he had come.
“To see you,” was the reply.
“Where are you staying?”
“Nowhere, at the moment. I left my wife under a shelter and came straight to see you.”
“There's no room here for you. Take a charity of rice, find somewhere to cook and eat it, and then go away and never come to visit me again.” Then the rich man ordered a servant to give his unfortunate friend a quarter cup of broken rice tied up in a piece of cloth to take with him. This was even though that very day he had 1,000 wagon-loads of the best rice threshed out and stored in his overflowing granaries. Yes, the rascal, who had coolly taken 400 millions, now doled out a quarter cup of broken rice to his benefactor!
The servant measured out the broken rice in a basket and took it to the Bodhisatta who was trying to decide whether or not to accept it. He thought, “This ingrate ended our friendship because I am a ruined man. Now, if I refuse his paltry gift, I will be as bad as he. But it would be dishonorable to refuse even a modest gift. Therefore, I will uphold my part of the friendship by taking his gift of broken rice.”
So he took the small portion of broken rice and went back to the shelter where his wife was.
“What do you have, dear?” she said.
“Our friend Piliya gave us this broken rice, and then he washed his hands of us.”
“Oh, why did you take it? Is this a fit return for the 400 million rupees?”
“Don’t cry, dear wife,” the Bodhisatta said. “I took it simply because I did not want to violate the principle of friendship. You should not cry.” So saying, he uttered this stanza:
If a friend plays the miser’s part,
A simpleton is cut to the heart;
His dole of rice I will take,
And not for this our friendship break.
But still the wife kept on crying.
Now, at that moment a farm servant whom the Millionaire had given to Piliya was passing by and he heard the weeping of his former mistress. Recognizing his master and mistress, he fell at their feet, and with tears and sobs asked why they were there. And the Bodhisatta told him their story.
“Keep up your spirits,” said the man cheerfully. He took them to his house. There he made perfumed baths and a meal for them. Then he let the other servants know that their old master and mistress had come. And after a few days they went as a group to the King’s palace where they caused quite a commotion.
The King asked what was going on. They told him the whole story. So he sent for the two men. He asked the Millionaire whether it was true that he had given 400 millions to Piliya.
Figure: The Shame of the Ingrate
“Sir,” he said, "when my friend told me about his dire need and came to seek my help, I gave him the half - not only of my money - but of my livestock and everything that I possessed.”
“Is this so?” the King said to Piliya.
“Yes, sire,” he said.
“And when in turn, your benefactor came to you and asked for your help, did you show him honor and hospitality?”
Here Piliya was silent.
"Did you have a quarter cup of broken rice doled out into a piece of cloth?”
Still Piliya was silent.
Then the King discussed what to do with his ministers. Finally, as a judgment on Piliya, he ordered them to go to Piliya’s house and give all of Piliya’s wealth to the Millionaire.
“Please, sire,” the Bodhisatta said. “I do not need everything that is his. Let me take nothing beyond what I previously gave to him.”
Then the King ordered that the Bodhisatta should receive the same portion back that he had given to Piliya. Then the Bodhisatta, with a large retinue of servants, went back with his regained wealth to Rājagaha. There he put his affairs in order, and after a life spent in charity and other good works, passed away to fare according to his karma.
His lesson ended, the Master identified the birth by saying, “Devadatta was the Treasurer Piliya of those days, and I was the Millionaire.”
