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69. PUROHITA INDRADATTA
Indradatta who lived in the city of Mathurä once was sitting in the window of his palatial house and as he looked out he saw a Jain monk coming towards him. He suddenly got a crazy idea in his mind that he should stretch his leg out of the window and plant it on the monk's head. He was actually stretching his leg out when a merchant who was a lay follower of Jainism saw it and felt extremely annoyed. "Look. The wretch has put his foot on the sādhu's head", he said to himself and made a vow that he would some time chop off the foot of the purohita. He was patient enough to wait for a suitable opportunity which however he did not get quite for some time. Therefore he went to a well known ācārya and asked him what he could do about it. The acārya advised him to be patient and tolerant but when the merchant told him of the vow that he had made, the acārya asked him whether he knew of any occasion that the purohita was likely to celebrate one of these days. The merchant remembered that the priest had recently constructed a new house which would soon be inaugurated by the king of the place and on that occasion the purohita would hold a reception.' The ācārya asked the merchant to attend the house warming ceremony and asked him to go near the king when he was about to enter the Purohita's house, hold him by his hand and lead him away. Meanwhile, the acärya would bring about the collapse of the house through his miraculous power and the merchant should convince the king that the Purohita had some foul intention in inviting the king to the house.
The whole thing proceeded according to plan and the infuriated king handed over the Purohita to the merchant for punishment. The merchant put a nail through his foot and chipped it off. Thus he could succeed in punishing the man who did not show proper respect to his religion.
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