Once upon a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, the Bodhisatta was Treasurer of that city. A gang of tipplers, conspiring together, drank liquor, went to the court and met the King. The Treasurer did not want to drink at all, but nevertheless went with them, solely to expose them. Marking their proceedings and detecting their scheme, he was anxious to scare them away. So He represented that it would be a gross thing for him to drink spirits just before going to the king’s palace. He said,”All of you sit here till I’ve seen the king and am on my way back; then I’ll think about it.”

On his return, the rascals called to him, but the Treasurer, fixing his eye on the drugged bowls, confounded them by saying, “I do not like your ways. Here fill the bowls as full now as when I left you; loudly as you want the praises of the liquor, yet not a drop passes your own lips. Why, if it had been good liquor, you’d have taken your own share as well. This liquor is drugged!”

After a life of good deeds, the Bodhisatta passed away to fare according to his deaerts.