74. THE DESPOT CURED

108 Buddhist Parables

King Brahmadatta happened to see a beautiful woman, the wife of a merchant. Conceiving a passion for this woman, he ordered a precious jewel secretly to be dropped into the merchant’s carriage. The jewel was missed, searched for, and found. The merchant was arrested on the charge of stealing, and the king pretended to listen with great attention to the defense, and with seeming regret ordered the merchant to be executed, while his wife was consigned to the royal harem.

Brahmadatta attended the execution in person, for such sights gave him pleasure, but when the doomed man looked with deep compassion at his infamous judge, a flash of the Buddha’s wisdom lit up the king’s beclouded mind; and while the executioner raised the sword for the fatal stroke, Brahmadatta felt the effect in his own mind and saw himself on the block.

“Hold, executioner!” shouted Brahmadatta. “It is the king whom you should slay!”

But it was too late. The executioner had done the bloody deed. The king fell back in a swoon, and when he awoke a change had come over him. He had ceased to be the cruel despot and henceforth led a life of holiness and rectitude. The people said that the character of the wise man had been impressed into his mind.

O you, who commit murders and robberies! The evil of self-delusion covers your eyes. If you could see things as they are, not as they appear, you would no longer inflict injuries and pain on your own selves.

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