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102. THE MONK WHO KILLED A
FROG
A certain monk, who had gone on his begging round along with his disciples, killed a frog. Probably he had stepped on it inadvertently. When one of his disciples said that he killed a frog, the monk evaded the charge by saying that the frog was already dead. That night, at the monastery, during the usual confession session, the monk did not any way refer to this incident. His young disciple insisted that the monk confessed it. However, he got annoyed and rushed at the disciple with a spittoon in his hand. But in his fury, he dashed against a pillar and died.
He was born amongst the Jyotiska gods (luminaries). After his time there was up, he was born amongst snakes whose mere glance is poisonous. One of these snakes bit a prince. The king immediately summoned a snake charmer. He dragged all the serpents in the area in his presence and forced all of them together in a charmed circle and asked them to confess who had bitten the prince, the others, he said, could go outside the circle. Accordingly only one snake remained in the circle and all others left. The snake charmer asked this snake either to suck back the poison from the prince's wound or throw himself in fire. Now this snake was of the agandhana type which is supposed to be proud and self-respecting. So the snake preferred to die in fire rather than suck back his own venom. Consequently, the prince died. The king was angry and he proclaimed that who ever brought him a serpent's head would receive a dināra as a reward. People began to kill snakes for money.
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