Like this trading man of Seriva.
So the Teacher, discoursing in such a manner as to lead up to the subject of Arahatship, dwelt on the Four Truths. And at the end of the discourse the monk who had given up in despondency was established in the highest Fruit—that is, in Nirvāna.
And when the Teacher had told the double story, he made the connexion, and summed up the Jātaka by concluding, “The then foolish dealer was Devadatta, but the wise dealer was I myself.”
END OF THE STORY OF THE MERCHANT OF SĒRI.
No. 4.
CULLAKA-SEṬṬHI JĀTAKA.
The Story of Chullaka the Treasurer.[250]
“The wise, far-seeing man,” etc.—This discourse the Blessed One uttered, while at Jīvaka’s Mango-grove near Rājagaha, concerning the Elder whose name was Roadling the Younger.
Now here it ought to be explained how Roadling the Younger came to be born. The daughter of a wealthy house in Rājagaha, they say, had contracted an intimacy with a slave, and being afraid that people would find out what she had done, she said to him, “We can’t stay here. If my parents discover this wrongdoing, they will tear us in pieces. Let us go to some far-off country, and dwell there.” So, taking the few things they had, they went out privately together to go and dwell in some place, it did not matter where, where they would not be known.
And settling in a certain place, they lived together there, and she conceived. And when she was far gone with child, she consulted with her husband, saying, “I am far gone with child; and it will be hard for both of us if the confinement were to take place where I have no friends and relations. Let us go home again!”
But he let the days slip by, saying all the while, “Let us go to-day; let us go to-morrow.”