The Converted Miser

Once on a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in
Benares, there was a gildmaster, Illlsa by name, who was
worth eighty crores, and had all the defects which fall to
the lot of man. He was lame and crook-backed and had
a squint; he was an unconverted infidel, and a miser,
never giving of his store to others, nor enjoying it himself;
his house was like a pool haunted by ogres. Yet, for
seven generations, his ancestors had been bountiful, giving
freely of their best ; but, when he became gildmaster, he
broke through the traditions of his house. Burning down
the almonry and driving the poor with blows from his
gates, he hoarded his wealth.

One day, when returning home from attendance on
the king, he saw a yokel, who had journeyed far and was
a- weary, seated on a bench, and filling a mug from a jar of
rank spirits, and drinking it off, with a dainty morsel of
stinking dried-fish as a relish. At the sight he felt a thirst
for spirits, but he thought to himself, " If I drink, others
will want to drink with me, and that means a ruinous
expense." So he walked about, keeping his thirst under.
But, as time wore on, he could do so no longer ; he grew as
yellow as old cotton ; and the veins stood out on his sunken
frame. On a day, retiring to his chamber, he lay down
hugging his bed. His wife came to him, and rubbed his
back, as she asked, " What has gone amiss with my lord ? '

(What follows is to be told in the words of the former
story 1 .) But, when she in her turn said, "Then I'll only
brew liquor enough for you/' he said, " If you make the
brew in the house, there will be many on the watch ; and
to send out for the spirits and sit and drink it here, is out
of the question." So he produced one single penny, and
sent a slave to fetch him a jar of spirits from the tavern.
When the slave came back, he made him go from the town
to the riverside and put the jar down in a thicket near the
highway. " Now be off ! " said he, and made the slave wait
some distance off, while he filled his cup and fell to.

Now the gildmaster's father, who for his charity and
other good works had been re-born as Sakka in the Realm
of gods, was at that moment w r ondering whether his bounty
was still kept up or not, and became aware of the stopping
of his bounty, and of his son's behaviour. He saw how his
son, breaking through the traditions of his house, had
burnt the almonry to the ground, had driven the poor
with blows from his gates, and how, in his miserliness,
fearing to share with others, that son had stolen away to
a thicket to drink by himself. Moved by the sight, Sakka
cried, " I will go to him and make my son see that deeds
must have their consequences ; I will work his conversion,
and make him charitable and worthy of re-birth in the
Realm of gods." So he came down to earth, and once
more trod the ways of men, putting on the semblance of
the gildmaster Illisa, with the latter's lameness, and crook-
back, and squint. In this guise, he entered the city of
Rajagaha and made his way to the palace-gate, where he
bade his coming be announced to the king. "Let him
approach," said the king ; and he entered and stood with
due obeisance before his majesty.

"What brings you here at this unusual hour, Lord
gildmaster?" said the king. "I am come, sire, because
I have in my house eighty crores of treasure. Deign to
have them carried to fill the royal treasury." "Nay, my
Lord gildmaster ; the treasure within my palace is greater
than this." " If you, sire, will not have it, I shall give it
away to whom I will." " Do so by all means, gildmaster,"
said the king. " So be it, sire," said the pretended Illisa,
as with due obeisance he departed from the presence to
the gildmaster's house. The servants all gathered round
him, but not one could tell that it was not their real
master. Entering, he stood on the threshold and sent for
the porter, to whom he gave orders that if anybody re-
sembling himself should appear and claim to be master of
the house they should soundly cudgel such a one and
throw him out. Then, mounting the stairs to the upper
story, he sat down on a gorgeous couch and sent for Illlsa's
wife. When she came he said with a smile, "My dear, let
us be bountiful."

At these words, wife, children, and servants all thought,
" It's a long time since he was this way minded. It must
be through drinking to-day that he is so good-natured and
generous." And his wife said to him, "Be as bountiful as
you please, my husband." " Send for the crier," said he,
" and bid him proclaim by beat of drum all through the
city that everyone who wants gold, silver, diamonds, pearls,
and the like, is to come to the house of Illlsa the gild-
master." His wife did as he bade, and a large crowd soon
assembled at the door carrying baskets and sacks. Then
Sakka bade the treasure-chambers be thrown open, and
cried, " This is my gift to you ; take what you will and go
your ways." And the crowd seized on the riches there
stored, and piled them in heaps on the floor and filled the
bags and vessels they had brought, and went off laden
with the spoils. Among them was a countryman who
yoked Illlsa's oxen to Illisa's carriage, filled it with the
seven things of price, and journeyed out of the city along
the highroad. As he w r ent along, he drew near the thicket,
and sang the gildmaster's praises in these words: "May
you live to be a hundred, my good lord Illisa ! What you
have done for me this day will enable me to live without
doing another stroke of work. Whose were these oxen ?
yours. Whose was this carriage ? yours. Whose the
wealth in the carriage? yours again. It was no father
or mother who gave me all this ; no, it came solely from
you, my lord."

These words filled the gildmaster with fear and
trembling. "Why, the fellow is mentioning my name in
his talk," said he to himself. "Can the king have been
distributing my wealth to the people ? " At the bare
thought he bounded from the bush, and, recognising his
own oxen and cart, seized the oxen by the cord, crying,
"Stop, fellow; these oxen and this cart belong to me."
Down leaped the man from the cart, angrily exclaiming,

" You rascal ! Illisa, the gildmaster, is giving away his
wealth to all the city. What has come to you ? " And he
sprang at the gildmaster and struck him on the back like
a falling thunderbolt, and went off with the cart. Illisa
picked himself up, trembling in every limb, wiped off the
mud, and hurrying after his cart, seized hold of it. Again
the countryman got down, and seizing Illisa by the hair,
doubled him up and thumped him about the head for
some time ; then taking him by the throat, he flung him
back the way he had come, and drove off. Sobered by
this rough usage, Illisa hurried off home. There, seeing
folk making off with the treasure, he fell to laying hands
on here a man and there a man, shrieking, " Hi ! what's
this? Is the king despoiling me?" And every man he
laid hands on knocked him down. Bruised and smarting,
he sought to take refuge in his own house, when the
porters stopped him with, " Holloa, you rascal ! Where
might you be going?" And first thrashing him soundly
with bamboos, they took their master by the throat and
threw him out of doors. " There is none but the king left
to see me righted," groaned Illisa, and betook himself to
the palace. "Why, oh why, sire," he cried, "have you
plundered me like this?"

" Nay, it was not I, my Lord gildmaster," said the king.
" Did you not yourself come and declare your intention of
giving your wealth away, if I would not accept it? And
did you not then send the crier round and carry out your
threat ? " " Oh sire, indeed it was not I that came to you
on such an errand. Your majesty knows how near and
close I am, and how I never give away so much as the
tiniest drop of oil which a blade of grass will take up.
May it please your majesty to send for him who has given
my substance away, and to question him on the matter."


Then the king sent for Sakka. And so exactly alike
were the two that neither the king nor his court could tell
which was the real gildmaster. Said the miser Illisa,
" Who, and what, sire, is this gildmaster ? / am the gild-
master."

" Well, really I can't say which is the real Illisa," said
the king. "Is there anybody who can distinguish them
for certain ? " " Yes, sire, my wife." So the wife was sent
for and asked which of the two was her husband. And
she said Sakka was her husband and went to his side.
Then in turn Illlsa's children and servants were brought
in and asked the same question ; and all with one accord
declared Sakka was the real gildmaster. Here it flashed
across Illlsa's mind that he had a wart on his head, hidden
among his hair, the existence of which was known only to
his barber. So, as a last resource, he asked that his barber
might be sent for to identify him. Now at this time the
Bodhisatta was his barber. Accordingly, the barber was
sent for and asked if he could distinguish the real from
the false Illisa. " I could tell, sire," said he, " if I might
examine their heads." " Then look at both their heads,"
said the king. On the instant Sakka caused a wart to rise
on his head ! After examining the two, the Bodhisatta
reported that, as both alike had got warts on their heads,
he couldn't for the life of him say which was the real man.
And therewithal he uttered this stanza :

Both squint; both halt; both men are hunchbacks too;
And both have warts alike! I cannot tell
Which of the two the real Illisa is.

Hearing his last hope thus fail him, the gildmaster fell
into a tremble ; and such was his intolerable anguish at
the loss of his beloved riches, that down he fell in a swoon.
Thereupon Sakka put forth his transcendental powers,
and, rising in the air, addressed the king thence in these
words : " Not Illisa am I, O king, but Sakka." Then those
around wiped Illlsa's face and dashed water over him.
Recovering, he rose to his feet and bowed to the ground
before Sakka, King of gods. Then said Sakka, "Illisa,
mine was the wealth, not thine ; I am thy father, and thou
art my son. In my lifetime I was bountiful toward the
poor and rejoiced in doing good ; wherefore, I am ad-
vanced to this high estate and am become Sakka. But
thou, walking not in my footsteps, art grown a niggard
and a very miser; thou hast burnt my almonry to the
ground, driven the poor from the gate, and hoarded
thy riches. Thou hast no enjoyment thereof thyself, nor
has any other human being ; but thy store is become like
a pool haunted by ogres, whereat no man may slake his
thirst. Albeit, if thou wilt rebuild mine almonry and
shew bounty to the poor, it shall be accounted to thee for
righteousness. But, if thou wilt not, then will I strip thee
of all that thou hast, and cleave thy head with this thunder-
bolt of Indra, and thou shalt die."

At this threat Illisa, quaking for his life, cried out,
"Henceforth I will be bountiful." And Sakka accepted
his promise, and, still seated in mid-air, established his son
in the Commandments and preached the Truth to him,
departing thereafter to his own abode. And Illisa was
diligent in almsgiving and other good works, and so
assured his re-birth thereafter in heaven.