002 – The unflagging merchant
In those days, there was a merchant. He was traveling with five hundreds carts. While his caravan was in a desert, they traveled only in the night. This caravan was conducted by a navigator.
When there was only sixteen kilometers left before the destination, the merchant ordered his followers to abandoned all water and firewood, and then went ahead.
Being tired, the navigator took a nap. Unfortunately, all cows turned back and went back all night. In the morning, the navigator stopped the caravan. All people thought that they would die because of thirst.
The merchant thought that if he was discouraged, all people would die. So he patrolled around and found a clump of grass. He thought that the grass grew because there was water underneath. He ordered some of his followers to dig down there.
After digging for a big while, they reached a bedrock. All of them were dishearten and stopped digging.
The merchant said to one follower, “Look, if you give up now, all of us will die. Do use this hammer to break the rock.”
The follower accepted and beat the rock hardly. The rock was broken and water blown out from the hole. All people could use the water for drink and bath. Because of this, all people were safe.
The merchant finally reincarnated as the Buddha.