The Stupid Merchant and The Wise Merchant
Long, long time ago, there were two merchants live in the same city, one is wise and one is stupid.
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.