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after this he came back to his own city where at the insistence of the king he agreed to remain with the king in the palace garden. The king had five Ministers all of whom were corrupt people. They used to accepted money and sided with the criminal. Once an aggrived person came to the monk and insisted that justice be administered to him. When this was done, the king placed him charge of the judicial affairs of the state. This was too much for the Ministers to swallow. So they started poisoning the ears of the king. It was decided that the monk would be murdered by the Ministers as he would be coming to the palace to receive his food. The whole arrangement was complete. As the monk came, a dog whom the monk had fed on an earlier occasion sat across his path and began to bark wildly. This was a sufficient warning. The monk retraced his steps. He came back to his thatch in the garden and started preparing to depart. The king saw all this from his window. The king came to him at once and begged to be forgiven if he had caused him any annoyance. But the monk did not agree. The King's parting request was that he should come again to the city at his convenience, to which the monk agreed. The Ministers were now happy at their success. Once again they started their nefarious practices to the greatest unhappiness of the people. The Ministers then thought that the possibility of the monk ever coming back must be nipped in the bud. So they reported to the King of an illicit connection existing between the monk and the queen. They suggested that the queen should be put to death on ground of adultery. The King agreed and the King's order was carried out. When this news spread into the city, the people in general and the four princes in particular became the enemies of the King and they thought of punishing the erring King. This news at last reached the ears of the monk in his cottage. He thought of saving the life of the King. He came to Varanasi and defeated the five Ministers with arguments. The Ministers having been exposed, they were thrown out of the kingdom. The monk then spoke words of wisdom to the King and the four princes and departed.
The five Ministers were the five spiritual leaders of the age, including Nigantha Nataputta. The dog was Ananda who had warned the monk.
