Jataka Online

In those days, there was a wise millionaire in Varanasi. He was expert on astrology.

One day, while he was going to see the king, he found a dead mouse on the street. He calculated and said “The man who has eyes of wisdom may take this dead mouse for a living”

A poor main accidentally heard the millionaire’s words. He thought that unless the millionaire knew, the millionaire wouldn’t say. So, the poor man took the dead mouse and sold it for being a cat food. He gained a very little money and then used that money to buy some of cane juice.

After that, he saw some flower pickers coming back from the forest. He served each of them some amount of cane juice. Each of flower picker gave a poor man a bunch of flowers in return. The poor man sold those flowers and gained some money.

On the next morning, he use that money to buy cane juice and drinking water and then went to the flower garden to serve them to the flower pickers. The flower pickers gave him a lot of flowers. He could make eight coins with this trick.

One day, it was a rainy and stormy day. A lot of branches and leaves were dropped on the ground in the royal garden. The garden keeper couldn’t find a way to trash them out.

The poor man went into the royal garden and offered to the garden keeper “If you give me those branches and leaves, I’ll bring all of them out of the garden.”

“Please bring them out, man.” The garden keeper replied.

The poor man went to the playground. He served cane juice to all children and asked them to bring all branches and leaves, and then piled them up in front of the royal garden.

There was a royal craftsman finding for firewood to burn clay pots. He found branches and leaves in front of the royal garden; so he bought them from the poor man. At that time, the poor man had sixteen coins and some of pots.

After that, he bought a big jar and stood it near the city gate. He filled it with drinking water to serve five hundred grass carriers.

The grass carriers said “Your generosity helped us much, what can we do for you in return ?”

“I’ll told you when I need your help.” The poor man replied.

The poor had made friends with many people. He made friends with workers both onshore and offshore.

One day, an onshore worker told him that a merchant with five hundred horses would arrived at the town on the next day.

The poor man said to grass carriers, “Today, each of you just give me a bunch of grass and don’t sell your grass unless I sold them out.”

The grass carriers accepted and then brought five hundred bunches of grass and laid them in front of the poor man’s house.

When the merchant arrived, he can’t find any grass except from the poor man, so he bought grasses from the poor man with a hundred thousands coins.

After a few days, an offshore worker told the poor man that a big ship had docked at the port. The poor man rented a car with many followers, looks like a great merchant, and went to the port. He gave a ring to the ship’s sailor as deposit and told him that if other merchant come to the port, he must tell them that the great merchant had deposited all merchandises.

When other merchants went to the port, the ship sailor said as the poor man told. So, each of one hundred merchants bought shares from the poor man with one thousands coins and gave another one thousands coins for buying merchandises. The poor man, who was not poor at that time, went back to the town.

The poor man realized that he could made a lot of money because of the wise millionaire. Then, he brought a hundred thousands coins and offered them to the millionaire.

The millionaire asked “How could you make such a lot of money ?”

The poor man said “I did as you said so I can make a lot of money in four months,” and told all the stories.

The millionaire was impressed so much. He offered his daughter as the poor man’s wife. When the millionaire passed away, the poor man became a new millionaire.

The wise millionaire finally reincarnated as the Buddha. The poor man finally reincarnated as a monk.