Story of Dharmabuddhi and Dushṭabuddhi.[21]
For instance, there were long ago in a certain village two brothers, the sons of a merchant, Dharmabuddhi and Dushṭabuddhi by name. They left their father’s house and went to another country to get wealth, and with great difficulty acquired two thousand gold dínárs. And with them they returned to their own city. And they buried those dínárs at the foot of a tree, with the exception of one hundred, which they divided between them in equal parts, and so they lived in their father’s house.
But one day Dushṭabuddhi went by himself and dug up of his own accord those dínárs, which were buried at the foot of the tree, for he was vicious and extravagant.[22] And after one month only had passed, he said to Dharmabuddhi: “Come, my elder brother, let us divide those dínárs; I have expenses.” When Dharmabuddhi heard that, he consented, and went and dug with him, where he had deposited the dínárs. And when they did not find any dínárs in the place where they had buried them, the treacherous Dushṭabuddhi said to Dharmabuddhi: “You have taken away the dínárs, so give me my half.” But Dharmabuddhi answered: “I have not taken them, you must have taken them.” So a quarrel arose, and Dushṭabuddhi hit Dharmabuddhi on the head with a stone, and dragged him into the king’s court. There they both stated their case, and as the king’s officers could not decide it, they were proceeding to detain them both for the trial by ordeal. Then Dushṭabuddhi said to the king’s officers; “The tree, at the foot of which these dínárs were placed, will depose, as a witness, that they were taken away by this Dharmabuddhi. And they were exceedingly astonished, but said, “Well, we will ask it to-morrow.” Then they let both Dharmabuddhi and Dushṭabuddhi go, after they had given bail, and they went separately to their house.
But Dushṭabuddhi told the whole matter to his father, and secretly giving him money, said; “Hide in the trunk of the tree and be my witness.” His father consented, so he took him and placed him at night in the capacious trunk of the tree, and returned home. And in the morning those two brothers went with the king’s officers, and asked the tree, who took away those dínárs. And their father, who was hidden in the trunk of the tree, replied in a loud clear voice: “Dharmabuddhi took away the dínárs.” When the king’s officers heard this surprising utterance, they said; “Surely Dushṭabuddhi must have hidden some one in the trunk.” So they introduced smoke into the trunk of the tree, which fumigated the father of Dushṭabuddhi so, that he fell out of the trunk on to the ground, and died. When the king’s officers saw this, they understood the whole matter, and they compelled Dushṭabuddhi to give up the dínárs to Dharmabuddhi. And so they cut off the hands and cut out the tongue of Dushṭabuddhi, and banished him, and they honoured Dharmabuddhi as a man who deserved his name.[23]
“So you see that a deed done with an unrighteous mind is sure to bring calamity, therefore one should do it with a righteous mind, as the crane did to the snake.”
Story of the Crane, the Snake and the Mungoose.[24]
Once on a time a snake came and ate the nestlings of a certain crane, as fast as they were born; that grieved the crane. So, by the advice of a crab, he went and strewed pieces of fish from the dwelling of a mungoose as far as the hole of the snake, and the mungoose came out, and following up the pieces of fish, eating as it went on, was led to the hole of the snake, which it saw and entered, and killed him and his offspring.
“So by a device one can succeed; now hear another story.”