Mahaushadha

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Mahashada from the Tibetan. One day, the king went into
the park with his wives and enjoyed himself there. Together
with them, one of them took off a string of
pearls worth a hundred thousand pieces of money and hung
it on a spray of an asoka tree. Whilst sporting
with the king, she forgot about it and left it there.

(00:20):
At midnight, after she had gone back to the palace
with the king, she remembered that she had left her
necklace in the forest. Meanwhile, it had been carried off
to the top of a tree by a female monkey.
The king ordered his men to hasten to the forest
and bring back the necklace. They went there, but they
did not find it. Now a beggar had gone there

(00:42):
in search of the remnants of the food of which
other men had made a meal. As he came forth
from the forest after partaking of such food, the king's
men arrested him. As no one else was to be
seen there, they called on him to render up the necklace.
Although he proted tested that he had not taken it,
had not even seen it yet. He was beaten with

(01:05):
fists and steaks, and then thrown into prison. Tormented by hunger,
he reflected that unless he contrived some cunning away of escape,
he would die there of starvation. So he said to
the jailer that he had, it was true, taken the
pearl necklace, but that he had given it to such
and such a young merchant him. Also, the king's men summoned,

(01:28):
and the two men were set fast, connected by wooden fetters.
The merchant used to receive from home dainty food. While
he was partaking of it, the beggar asked him for some,
but the merchant reviled him, saying, it is all very
well for you to accuse me of theft in order
that I may nourish you with my food, I will

(01:50):
give you none of it. And having thus spoken, he
ate it all up. After this, when the merchant wished
to change his place, and said, let let us stand
up and move, the beggar replied, I will not listen
to your words. I shall not get up. Then said
the merchant, henceforward will I behave so that you will

(02:12):
be contented. Thus, with friendly words and with an oath,
he won over the beggar and was able to do
as he wished. The Next day, the merchant sent home
orders to provide in future food enough for two persons.
Thereat the beggar was highly pleased, and he reflected that
in former times he used to wander about the whole

(02:33):
city without being able to find the means of filling
his belly. But now food and drink in plenty were
at hand. While they so enjoyed themselves, a further desire
arose within them. They thought that in order to have
still more pleasure, they must call in a lute player.
So the beggar accused a lute player also of having

(02:55):
taken the string of pearls. Then the king's men cast
him also in to the prison. After some time, the
others besought the beggar to find some means whereby they
might become free, saying that in that case he should
want for nothing. He promised to do so, and bethought
himself that no one could be of use except mahau Shaddad.

(03:19):
So he told the king's men that mahau Shadda's son
had likewise taken part in the affair, and they sent
for him also. When mahau Shadda heard that his son
had been imprisoned, he felt that he must certainly go
to the place, for if he did not do so,
his son would fret himself. On arriving there, he asked

(03:40):
the king what offense his son had committed. The king
replied that he had been imprisoned on the testimony of
the beggar with respect to the stolen pearl necklace. When
Maha Shadda had become fully acquainted with the contrivance of
the captives, he said to the King, the theft has
not been committed by any of these people. Let them

(04:00):
all go free on my word. So they were released.
After this, he went out to the park and came
to the spot to the very tree where they had
been before. When he looked closely at the tree, he
perceived a female monkey sitting at the top of it.
Then he felt sure that this animal had taken the

(04:22):
string of pearls and that it must be enticed to
come down by some artifice. So he asked the king
to go there with his wife and went there to
hang a necklace round her neck. When that was done,
the monkey, as it sat on the tree top, hung
the pearl necklace round its neck. Then Mahau Shadda told

(04:43):
the king's wife to dance. When she did so the
monkey on the tree top also began to dance, but
still the string of pearls did not fall from off
its neck. In order to bring that about, mahau Shadda
asked the king to make his wife, as she did, danced,
hang down her head. Then the monkey also began to

(05:04):
dance about with its head hanging down, whereupon the string
of pearls fell down off its neck. Full of joy,
the king embraced Mahaushaddah and bestowed much property upon him