Once upon a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, the Bodhisatta was one of the king’s courtiers. And the royal chaplain of those days was so talkative that, when he once started, no one else could get a word in. So the King cast about for someone to cut the chaplain short, and looked high and low for such an one.

Now at that time there was a cripple in Benares who was a wonderful marksman with stones. The boys used to put him on a little cart and draw him to the gates of Benares, where there is a large banyan tree covered with leaves.

There they would gather round and give him half pence, saying ‘Make an elephant,’ or ‘Make a horse.’ And the cripple would throw stone after stone till he had cut the foliage into the shapes asked for. And the ground was covered with fallen leaves.

On his way to his pleasaunce the King came to the spot, and all the boys scampered off in fear of the King leaving the cripple there helpless. At the sight of the little of leaves the King asked, who had cut the leaves off. And he was told that the cripple had done it. Thinking that here might be a way to stop the chaplain’s mouth, the King asked where the cripple lives. The king was answered, “at the foot of a tree.” The king asked the cipple, “I have a very talkative chaplain. Do you think you could stop his talking?”

The cripple said, “Yes, sir. If I had a peashooter full of dry goat’s dung.” Then the King took him to the palace and set with a peashooter full of dry goat’s dung behind a curtain, with a slit in it facing the chaplain’s seat. When everybody sat in their respective seats, the court began. And the chaplain forthwith monopolized the conversation, and no one else could get a word in. At that time, the cripple shot the pellets of goat’s dung one by one, like flies, through the slit in the curtain right into the chaplain’s mouth. And the Chaplain swallowed all the pellets heaped, as and when they came. When the whole peashooter full of pellets was lodged in the chaplain’s stomach, they swelled to the size of half a peck and the King, knowing they were all gone, addressed the Chaplain in these words “Reverend sir! so talkative are you, that you have swallowed down a peashooter full of goat’s dung without noticing it. That’s about as much as you will be able to take at a sitting. Now go home and take a dose of panick seed and water by way of emetic, and put yourself right again.”

From that day the chaplain kept his mouth shut and sat silent during conversation as though his lips were sealed.

The King said, “Well! my ears are indebted to the cripple for this relief.” The King gave him four villages, one in the North, one in the South, one in the West, and one in the East.

The Bodhisatta drew near to the King and said, “In this world, sir! skill should be cultivated by the wise. Mere skill in aiming has brought this cripple all this prosperity.”