Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta was king of Benares, the Bodhisatta came into the world as a brahmin’s son of the kingdom of Kasi; and his father was a lawyer. When the lad was sixteen years old, his father gave him a fine jewel into his custody, and they both traveled through town, village after village, until they came to Benares. There they had meal cooked in the gatekeeper’s house; he asked where there any lodging to sleep and take rest? The people told him that there was a building outside the city, but that it was haunted; but however he might lodge there if he liked. The lad said to his father, “Have no fear of any goblin, father! I will subdue him, and bring him to your feet.” So he persuaded his father, and they went to the place together. The father lay down upon a bench, and his son sat beside him, chafing his feet.

Now the Goblin that haunted the place had received it for twelve years lease on these terms: that if any man who entered it should sneeze, and when long life was wished him, should answer, “Long life to you!” or “The same to you!” all except these the Goblin had a right to eat. The Goblin lived upon the central rafter of the hut.

He determined to make the father of the Bodhisatta sneeze. Accordingly, by his magic power he raised a cloud of fine dust, which entered the man’s nostrils; and as he lay on the bench, he sneezed. The son did not cry “Long life!” and down came the Goblin ready to devour his victim. But the Bodhisatta saw him descend, and then these thoughts passed through his mind. “Doubtless it is he who made my father sneeze. This must be a Goblin that eats all who do not say ‘Long life to you.” And he addressed his father, “Father! You will live for 120 years and Long life to you; no goblin eat you up.”

The Goblin thought, “This one I cannot eat, because he said ‘Long life to you.’ But I shall eat his father;” and he came close to the father. But the man understood the truth and told, “Long life to you, too!”

The Goblin hearing these words, turned away, thinking “Neither of these is for me to eat.” But the Bodhisatta put a question to him “Come, Goblin, how is it you eat the people who enter this building?”

“I earned the right for twelve years service of Vessavana.”

“What, are you allowed to eat everybody?”

“All except those who say ‘The same to you’ when another wishes them long life.”

The lad, “Goblin! you have done some wickedness in former lives, which has caused you to be born now fierce, and cruel, and a bane to others. If you do the same kind of thing now, you will pass from darkness to darkness. Therefore from this time onwards abstain from such things as taking life.” With these words he humbled the Goblin, scared him with fear of hell, established him in the Five Precepts, and made him as obedient as an errand boy.

Next day, when the people came and saw the Goblin, and learnt how that the Bodhisatta had subdued him, they went and told the king. “My lord, some man has subdued the Goblin, and made him as obedient as an errand boy!” So the king sent for him, and raised him to be Commander in Chief; while he heaped honours upon the father. Having made the Goblin a tax gatherer, and established him in the Bodhisatta’s precepts, after giving alms and doing good he departed to swell the hosts of heaven.