Having cut the fence sticks, the Gamarāla came to drink gruel. There was nothing in the gruel pot. He asked at the hand of the boy, “Where, Aḍā! is the gruel?”
“The gruel went out while I was saying don’t go,” he said.
Then the Gamarāla thought, “There is no need to keep this boy,” and having beaten him he drove him away.
As the boy was going, weeping and weeping, he met with a Buddhist monk.[1] There were two bundles in the Lord’s hand. He told the boy to take the couple of bundles. As the boy was carrying them he asked at the hand of the Lord, “What is there in the bundles?”
“Palm-sugar packets,[2] and plantains,” he said.
The Lord asked at the hand of the boy, “What is thy name?”
The boy said, “My name is Aewariyakkā Mulakkā.”
As he was coming along from there the boy lagged behind. So the monk spoke to the boy, “Aewariyakkā Mulakkā, Aḍā! Come on quickly,” he said. Then the boy ate some packets of sugar,[3] and rows of plantains.[4]
The monk having gone to the pansala (monk’s residence), when he looked [found that] packets of sugar and rows of plantains were missing. “Aḍā! where are the other plantains and palm-sugar that were in these?” he asked.
“Lord, I am a packet eater (Mulakkā), and a first-row-of-plantains eater (Aewariyakkā),” he said. “I ate them.” There and then, having beaten the boy, he chased him away.