When they arrived at Jetawan temple, female monks paid homage to the Buddha and told all the story to the Buddha.

The Buddha knew that the pregnant monk got pregnant before she became a monk. However, the Buddha realized that people from other religions would have a chance to blame the Buddha that he pick up a woman that Devadatta left. To avoid the problem, the Buddha thought that this case should be judged among many creditible persons including the king.

On the next morning, the Buddha invited Kosol the king, Anathabindika the millionaire, Julaanathabindika the millionaire, Wisaka the great laywoman, and many people from famous families to have a meeting. At dusk, when all people arrived at the meeting, the Buddha called Ubalee, a senior monk who was expert on Buddhist regulation, and said “Go to judge this pregnant monk among all people.”

Ubalee, a senior monk, sat on his chair and called Wisaka to be in front of the king and said “Wisaka, please diagnose this pregnant monk to see when she got pregnant.”

Wisaka examined the pregnant monk’s body, calculated and told Ubalee that the pregnant monk got pregnant before she became a monk. So that the judge had been made. Many months passed, the pregnant monk finally delivered a baby.

One day, the king traveled near the house of the female monks and heard a sound of the baby, so he asked his councilor. The councilor told that the pregnant monk had delivered a baby.

The king said “Taking care of baby is female monks’ worry. I’ll take care that baby.”

[To be continued ...]

At last, she was ordained in the house of female monks under Devadatta’s control. Months passed, other female monks noticed that her belly was bigger and bigger. Other female monks asked her “How did you get pregnant ?”. The pregnant monk answered “I don’t know but I never break any precept.”

Other female monks brought her to Devadatta’s house and asked Devadatta “My highness, this woman couldn’t favor her husband so she became a monk. Now she got pregnant. We don’t know that she got pregnant before or after becoming a monk. What should we do?”

Afraid that he would be criticized that he had a pregnant monk, Devadatta said “You should let her leave her monkshood.”

Female monks paid homage to Devadatta and went back.

After knew that Devadatta let her leave her monkshood, the pregnant monk said to other female monks “Devadatta is not the Buddha and I didn’t become a monk in Devadatta’s house. I actually became a monk in the Buddha’s house. In addition, my monkshood isn’t easy for me to get. Don’t make me lost my monkshood. Come on. Please brought me to Jetawan the great temple and see how the Buddha judge me.”

Other female monks accepted. They traveled about seven hundreds kilometers until they arrived at Jetawan the great temple.

[To be continued ...]

On those days, the Buddha once was a hog deer. He was a leader of one thousands hog deers. He had two sons, Lukkana and Kala.

When he got old, he called his two sons and said “My sons. Now I’m old. It’s time for you to rule our group.” He splitted the group into two groups, each group has five hundreds hog deers, and let each son to rule each group.

At that time, villagers had set up many traps to trap hog deers because they like to eat rice sprouts which were cropped by villagers. The hog deer father knew about this and ordered his sons “My two sons, there was a lot of rice sprouts. Our hog deers will be caught by villagers. You should bring your group to the hill in the forest and come back when all rice have been harvested.”

Kala and his group headed for the forest at daytime, many of them walked through the village and were caught dead by villagers.

Lukkana knew that they should travel at night and should not passed the village. He could safely leaded all his hog deers to the forest.

Five months passed, after humans had harvested all rice. They went down from the hill. And again, Kala lost all hog deers because he leaded his group to passed the villages at daytime while Lukkana could bring all hog deers back safely.

Kala finally reincarnated as Devadatta. Kala’s group of hog deers finally reincarnated as Devadatta’s followers. Lukkana finally reincarnated as Saribudra, a famous Buddhist saint. Lukkana’s group of hog deers finally reincarnated as Buddha’s monks. The father finally reincarnated as the Buddha.

When the Buddha knew that all five hundreds monks had succeeded high level of meditation, the Buddha called Saribudra and Mokkallana, two Buddhist saints, to preach them and call them back.

On the next morning, Saribudra and Mokkallana brought all five hundreds monks back at Veruwan the great temple. All monks said “Saribudra, our big brother, is surrounded by five hundreds monks. This looks so beautiful.”

The Buddha said “Look, monks, Saribudra doesn’t only have many followers in this life, he used to have many followers in those days. Devadatta doesn’t only lose his followers in this life, he used to lose his followers in those days.”

Being asked to reveal the truth by all monks, the Buddha told the story as follows:

[To be continue ...]

In the city, there was an old millionaire family. However, this family had lost their money and left only a girl with her grandmother. They usually worked for hire. Actually, they had a golden plate but the plate was dusty so they didn’t know that it’s actually gold.

When the first peddler arrived at the old millionaire family’s house, he shouted “Jewelries for sell or exchange !”

Seeing that, the girl said to her grandmother “Grandma, could you buy a jewel for me ?”

“We’re so poor. We have no money. How can we buy that ?” questioned grandmother.

“We have a big plate and we didn’t use it. We can exchange that plate with jewel.” replied the girl.

So the grandmother called the peddler, brought out the plate and said “Master, I’ll give this plate to you and you just give us some jewelries.”

The peddler took the plate. After holding, he thought that it may be a golden plate. He scratched on the back of the plate with the pin and found that it was a golden plate. He planed to take the plate for free, so he threw the plate to the ground and said “This plate doesn’t worth anything.” And then he left the house.

After a while, the second peddler arrived at the house. He shouted “Jewelries for exchange !”

The girl said to her grandmother again, “Grandma, I want some jewel.”

The grandmother replied “Don’t you see the previous peddler threw our plate away. What can we exchange jewel with ?”

The girl said “That peddler is so rude. This peddler looks gentle. He may accept our plate.”

The grandmother agreed and let the girl called the second peddler.

They brought the plate to the second peddler. Knew that the plate is actually a golden plate, the peddler said “Grandma, this plate worth a hundred thousands coins. I have not much jewelries or money to exchange with this golden plate.”

The grandmother said “The previous peddler said that this plate worth nothing and threw this plate away. I’ll give you this plate and you just give me anything.”

The peddler gave them almost all his money and jewelries, and then left the house. He brought back only scales, bags and eight coins and quickly went to the boatyard. He gave the boatman eight coins and went into the boat.

The first peddler went back to the house and told the grandmother “Give me that plate and I’ll give you something.”

“What the hell you said ? You make my golden plate worthles ! A fair peddler just gave me one hundred coins for that plate.” replied the grandmother.

Heard that, the hestitant peddler lost his conciousness. When he gained his conciousness, he quickly went to the boatyard. He saw the second peddler in a river, so he called the boatman “Dear boatman, please come back.”

The second peddler said to the boatman “Don’t go back.”

Saw that the boat didn’t come back, the hestitant peddler got very angry and then got dead with vengeful heart.

The first peddler finally reincarnated as Devadatta. The second peddler finally reincarnated as the Buddha.

The wise merchant thought that if he travel together with the foolish merchant, there would be not enough space, firewood and water. So he called the foolish merchant and consult with the foolish merchant, “Look, I think that it would be not good if we travel together. Do you want to travel first ?”

The foolish merchant thought that if he went first, way would be not muddy yet, his cows would have untouched grass, water would be clear, and he could set the price of merchandise by himself. So he said “I’ll travel first.”

The wise merchant thought that if he went last, way would be smoothed, his cows would have newly sprouted mild grass, there would be dug wells. He also thought that setting price is like killing people, so he preferred to sell merchandises at the set prices. Because of these, the wise merchant said “My friend, you should go first.”

The foolish merchant accepted and begun traveling. The path was lack of water, so he prepared many large water jars and put them on the carts.

While the foolish merchant was traveling in an arid forest, he found a small cart surrounded by twelve soaked guards. It looks like they had a lot of water. The small cart was stopped to give way to the foolish merchant’s carts.

One of the guards asked the foolish merchant “Where are you from ?”

“Noble man, we are from Varanasi.” the foolish merchant replied. “How about you ? You all looks so wet, is it rain on the way you passed ?”

The guard replied, “What you say ! On the way I have passed, there are a lot of water source. It always rain. However, I see that you have big carts at the end. They looks so heavy. What do they contain ?”

“They contains water.” The foolish merchant replied.

“Oh ! They are not need anymore !” the guard said, “there are a lot of water sources ahead. You should break all jars and travel with lighter carts.” and then went away.

The foolish merchant ordered his followers to break all water jars and went ahead. However, there is no water at all. After travel for a while, the foolish merchant and his followers were thirsty and exhausted so they all stopped the caravan and slept there.

Actually, the guards are ogres who masqueraded as the guards to deceive humans. They wanted to make deceived humans tired so they are easy to be eaten.

In the night, the ogres came from the ogres town. They ate all humans and cows. All five hundreds carts were untouched.

After the foolish merchant had left the village about half a month, the wise merchant started his caravan.

Before entering the arid forest, he announced to his followers “Noble men, unless you’ve got permission from me, you don’t waste any water. In the forest, there may be a poisoned fruit, if you found any fruit that you never eat, don’t eat it.” And then they entered the arid forest.

In the arid forest, the ogres with cart appeared again. The wise merchant noticed that they had red eyes and had no shadow. They also suggested that the wise merchant broke all water jars.

The wise merchant said “Thank you for your suggestion. However, I’m a merchant. I won’t discard any water if I don’t see new water source.”

When the ogres disappeared, the wise merchant said to his followers, “Those men aren’t humans, they are actually ogres. They want to deceived us to discard our water to make us tired. My friend is not smart, he may be deceived and has been eaten. We should go ahead fastly.”

They finally found five hundred carts with a lot of bones on the ground. In the night, the wise merchant ordered his followers to build a camp and guard the camp securely.

In the morning, the wise merchant ordered his followers to choose only strong carts and high-priced merchandises from the foolish merchant’s carts and then went ahead. When the wise merchant reached his destination, he could sell his merchandises with double to triple prices.

The foolish merchant finally reincarnated as Devadatta. The wise merchant finally reincarnated as the Buddha.

Moral: Trust only the truth, not estimation.

One day, while he was on a mango tree, he saw a hog deer standing and observing the tree.

Noticing that, the hunter thrown a mango and then the mango was dropped in front of the hog deer.

Wondering why the mango was dropped too far from the tree, the hog deer looked up and found that there was a hunter on the tree.

The hog deer pretended that it didn’t see the hunter and said “The mango tree ! I know that you throw a mango to deceive me. I will prowl at another place.” and then turned back.

The hunter went down but was unable to catch the hog deer, he said “This time, I missed you.”

The hog deer looked back and said “Even though you missed me this time, but you won’t miss a hell in the next life because you had committed many sins.” and then went away.

When the hunter died, he was born in hell and was suffered for many lives.

The hunter finally reincarnated as Devadatta. The hog deer finally reincarnated as the Buddha.

Moral: If we have commit a sin, although we won’t be punished in this life, we will be punished in the next life or later.

One day, there was a group of monkeys, which had about eighty thousand monkeys. This group was leaded by a great monkey.

The great monkey said to all monkeys “Normally, in a big forest, there was some poison plants. Same as ponds, they usually owned by water demons. When you find any fruit you never eat or pond you never went into, you must tell me first.”

Some monkeys arrived at the pond and waited for the great monkey. When the great monkey arrived, he asked “Why didn’t you go down into the pond ?”

“We are waiting for you.” the monkeys replied.

“That’s good.” the great monkey said and looked around the pond.

Found that there were only footsteps that head down into the pond, he said “This pond was owned by a water demon. Each of you should find a reed grass for drinking water.”

Because of this, all monkeys were safe from a water demon.

The water demon finally reincarnated as Devadatta. The great monkey finally reincarnated as the Buddha.

Unfortunately, the king was much addicted to hunting for hog deer so followers couldn’t do anything except following him in the jungle. To safe time, followers has fenced out a small jungle and herded numbers of hog deer into the jungle for the king to easily hunt hog deers.

The king sometimes went to hunt a hog deer by himself; sometimes he ordered a chef to hunt a hog deer for him. Everytime they were hunted, there was a chaos in hog deers and it was problem for old hog deers, pregnant hog deers, and nursing mother hog deers.

Therefore, Nikroth and Saka agreed that everyday they should alternately select one hog deer from their group and get him or her to wait for being hunted in the appointed area.

One day, it was a turn for a hog deer that was far gone in pregnancy. She begged Saka that let her give a birth to her child before being killed. Saka had rejected her request, so she went to see Nikroth and ask him to save her baby. Nikroth said that he would be a prey for that day instead.

Nikroth went to the appointed area and laid down waiting to be hunted. When the time for hunting had arrived, because Nikroth was a king of hog deer, a chef didn’t dare to shoot him. The chef went back and told the king about this.

After a while, the king came to the jungle and asked Nikroth “Why did you lay down here ?”

Nikroth replied “I’m here because today it’s actually a turn of a pregnant hog deer. She is so pity. I can’t let her to be killed.”

Being sorrowful, the king said “From today, I’ll stop killing animal.” and ordered his followers to free all animals in the jungle.

Saka finally reincarnated as Devadatta. Nikroth finally reincarnated as the Buddha.

Moral: Leaders shouldn’t abandon followers while having a hard time.

One day, they accidentally have a plan to set their own caravan with five hundred carts to go to the same direction.

While discussing that who should go first, the stupid merchant thought that if he went first, his cows whould have a lot of grass to eat and he could sold the merchandise first, so he told the wise merchant that he want to go first.

In a deep forest, while the stupid merchant was traveling, he found twelve men soaked with water. One of them greeted “Hello merchant, where will you go ?”

“I’ll go that way” the stupid merchant answered.

“It looks like you have a lot of heavy carts, what do such heavy carts contain ?” the stranger asked.

“They contain big jars filled with water.” the stupid merchant answered.

“That’s not needed anymore ! There are a lot of water ahead. Look at us, we are all soaked because it’s always raining here.” the stranger suggested.

The stupid merchant followed the suggestion. He broke all water jars and go ahead. Unfortunately, he couldn’t find any water until the night. He and his followers were very thirsty and exhausted so all of them slept deeply.

All the twelve men are actually ogres disguising as men. They transformed back to ogres and eat the stupid merchant, all his followers, and his cows. Only bones and carts were left.

Fifty days passed, the wise merchant started his caravan also.

In a deep forest, the wise merchant also found twelve men soaked with water. One of them greeted “Hello merchant, where will you go ?”

“I’ll go that way” the wise merchant answered.

“It looks like you have a lot of heavy carts, what do such heavy carts contain ?” the stranger asked.

“They contain jars with water.” the wise merchant answered.

“That’s not needed anymore ! There are a lot of water ahead. Look at us, we are all soaked because it’s always raining here.” the stranger suggested.

“Thank you for your suggestion.” the wise merchant said.

However, the wise merchant didn’t believe the suggestion. He asked his followers “Do anyone of you heard that there are any stream, waterway, or any swamp around here ?”

Followers answered “No, Sir.”

The merchant asked “Therefore, we shouldn’t believe the strangers who told us that there are a lot of water ahead. They may be robbers or ogres. So, we can’t abandon our water.”

The wise merchant continue traveling until the caravan found a lot of bones and all carts of the stupid merchant. Sawing that, the merchant said “Look, those men surely be ogres. We will set camp here, and we need to guard our caravan carefully all night.”

In the morning, they were all safe. The wise merchant ordered his followers to take expensive merchandise from the stupid merchant’s carts and continued traveling. At last, he could sold out all of his merchandise, and came back home safely.

The stupid merchant finally reincarnated as Devadatta. The wise merchant finally reincarnated as the Buddha.

Moral: Think carefully before believe.