Karma Story of Buddhist Ethics

Author(s): Paul Carus
Publisher: Chicago Open Court Publishing Company

Page 21

BUSINESS IN BENARES.
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was in great distress. On meeting the jeweller he said: “I am a ruined man and can do no business with you unless I can buy a cart of the best rice for the kirig's table. I have a rival banker in Bârânasî who, learning that I had made a contract with the royal treasurer to deliver the rice to-morrow morning, and being desirous to bring about my destruction, has bought up all the rice in Bârânasî. The royal treasurer must have received a bribe, for he will not release ne from my contract, and to-morrow I shall be a ruined man unless Krishnawill send an angel from heayen to help me."
While Mallika was still lamenting the poverty to which his rival would reduce him, Pandu missed his purse. Searching his carriage without being able to find it, he suspected his slave Mahâduta; and calling the police, accused hini of theft, and had him bound and cruelly tortured to extort a confession.
The slave in his agonies cried: “I am innocent, let me go, for I cannot stand this pain ; I am quite innocent, at least of this