Nagarjuna and The Thief

Nagarjuna and The Thief : 

Source: Vikapla 2001,  Singh S P ( 2001 ) Beliefs, Values, and Ethics Vikalpa 26, 2, page 3 - 14.

Nagarjuna was great Budhist monk and philosopher. One queen was very much devoted to him. Having invited him to come to her palace, she got a golden begging bowl studded with diamonds filled it with food,and then planned to present it to the Master as alms. When the master arrived, she took his ordinary bowl and replace it by the precious bowl filled with delicious food. He took it and was going back to  his monastery when a thief saw him carrying the bowl and wondered " how long is he going to keep it ? Somebody is going to take it away so why not I ? ". He followed the monk at some distance.'

Nagarjuna went inside his hut  ate his food,  threw the bowl out of the window and it fell where the thief was sitting.

The thief was shocked, picked up the bowl and

went in to the hut and asked the master.  " May I ask you one question?

" Nagarjuna said " to bring you in I had to throw the bowl out. The bowl is yours take it as a gift. You will not be a thief. I can now sleep and you can go satisfied"

The thief said, You are a strange man dont you, know how costly the bowl is ?

Nagarjuna replied " Since I have known myself, nothing is more precious than that".

The thief  said, Then give me one more present how can I know my self ?

Master replied  "Whatever, you are doing, continue doing it. But do one thing more When you are stealing be aware, be alert, be watchful of what you are doing, If you lose your watchfulness, then dont steal ".

For weeks the thief tried but found it difficult to practice stealing.

Whenever he tried to take something he lost his awareness. He was sincere and would leave the things.

And when he was aware, there was no desire to take the thing.

Finally he came empty-handed to the Master and said " You disturbed my whole life. Now I cannot steal ".

Nagarjune said  " that is not my problem if you want to steal forget all about awareness".

The thief said, " Those few moments when I was aware were so valuable that I never felt so much of joy in my whole life before. I cannot stop practicing awareness, will you allow me to be your disciple " .

Nagarjuna said " .....

I had initiated you already when you followed me. you were thinking how you were going to steal that begging bowl,  and I was thinking how to steal you. We are both in the same business'.


Story ends here ....................

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