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The Value of Controlling Greed
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awoke and found nobody there, he began to walk around. Suddenly he saw an elephant which began to follow him. Frightened, Jaichand ran as fast as he could. At last he caught a big branch of a vast tree, climbed it up and hung there. Since the elephant could not reach him, it tried to uproot the tree.
There was a bee-hive in the tree. Irritated by the motion of the elephant, the bees in it flew about and began to bite Jaichand. Below him was a well with snakes in it and above him were two black and white rats gnawing the branch from which he was hanging. Jaichand was surrounded by difficulties on all sides and death seemed inevitable. At that moment a drop of honey fell from the bee hive straight into his mouth. He looked at the hive with passion.
A demi-god and a fairy were passing that way and the fairy, who felt pity for Jaichand, forced her husband to save his life. The demi-god said, "He will not accept my proposal because of the greed of honey." The fairy again pleaded with him to do so. The demi-god brought his plane near the tree and asked Jaichand to board it so that they would help him to arrive home safely.
Jaichand said, "All right.
Just wait for me until I lick one more drop of honey." After a few minutes a drop of honey fell and he licked it. Again the couple requested him to go with them but he refused and wished to have more drops of honey. Finally the pair was disappointed and flew away. Jaichand wasted his life in the greedy anticipation of more and more drops of honey.
