The Penny-Wise Monkey

Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta was reigning in
Benares, he had a Councillor who was his right-hand man
and gave him advice in things spiritual and temporal.
There was a rising on the frontier, and the troops there
stationed sent the king a letter. The king started, rainy
season though it was, and formed a camp in his park.
The Bodhisatta stood before the king. At that moment
the people had steamed some peas for the horses, and
poured them out into a trough. One of the monkeys that
lived in the park jumped down from a tree, filled his
mouth and hands with the peas, then up again, and sitting
down in the tree he began to eat. As he ate, one pea fell
from his hand upon the ground. Down dropped at once
all the peas from his hands and mouth, and down from
the tree he came, to hunt for the lost pea. But that pea
he could not find; so he climbed up his tree again, and
sat still, very glum, looking like some one who had lost a
thousand in some lawsuit.

The king observed how the monkey had done, and
pointed it out to the Bodhisatta. " Friend, what do you
think of that ? " he asked. To which the Bodhisatta made
answer: King, this is what fools of little wit are wont to
do ; they spend a pound to win a penny " ; and he went
on to repeat the first stanza:

A foolish monkey, living- in the trees,
king, when both his hands were full of peas,
Has thrown them all away to look for one:
There is no wisdom, Sire, in such as these.

Then the Bodhisatta approached the king, and ad-
dressing him again, repeated the second stanza:

Such are we, mighty monarch, such all those that greedy be;
Losing much to gain a little, like the monkey and the pea.

On hearing this address the king turned and went
straight back to Benares. And the outlaws hearing that
the king had set forth from his capital to make mincemeat
of his enemies, hurried away from the borders.