Chapter 43 - Incredulity punished

[Source: Kah-gyur, iv. 246.]

“Honoured sirs, last night I dreamed an evil dream, in consequence whereof we will leave this place.”

The monkeys said, “Let us do so and set forth.”

As Bodisats have dreams which are full of significance, the august being said to the chief of the other band of monkeys, “As I have dreamed such a dream, it is to be hoped that you will move somewhere else.”

The other chief answered incredulously, “Do dreams then turn out true? If you want to go, in that case go. But as I possess a widely extended domain, I shall not go.”

When the first monkey-chief saw that the other did not believe in him, he himself, together with his band, went away.

One day after this, as a servant-maid was roasting barley on the earth in one of the houses of the hill-town, a wandering sheep came by bad luck that way, and began to eat the grain. The maid struck the sheep with a firebrand, and the sheep ran blazing into the king’s elephant stable. From its flames the elephant stable caught fire, and many elephants were scorched. The king sent for the doctor, and asked how the elephants which had been scorched by the fire ought to be treated. The doctor prescribed monkeys cooked in barley-meal. Accordingly orders were given to the hunters, who caught all the monkeys residing in the neighbourhood. These monkeys, whose flesh had increased in the course of time, the doctor threw into the caldron alive.

A deity uttered this verse: “It is not good to dwell in a town or a village in which discord exists. On account of discord between the sheep and the servant-maid, the monkeys perished.”