Once upon a time, in the days of the Buddha Kassapa, there was a Brother who lived the village. He was regular in his conduct as a Brother, virtuous in his life, and was filled to overflowing with insight. There was also an Elder, an Arahat, who lived with his fellows on terms of equality, and at the time of the story paid a first visit to the village where lived the squire who supported this Brother.

So pleased was the squire, taking his bowl, he led him into the house and with every mark of respect invited him to eat. Then he listened to a short discourse by the Elder, and at its close said, with a bow, “Sir, please go to our monastery close by; in the evening I will come and call upon you there.” So the Elder went to the monastery. Saluting the resident Brother on his entrance, he entered the monastry. The Resident Brother received him with all friendliness, and asked whether any food had been given him as alms.

The Elder replied that he had food at the squire’s house. The Elder was given a palce to sleep. Then laying aside his bowl and robe, he became absorbed in blissful Insight and enjoyed the bliss of the Fruits of the Paths.

In the evening, the squire came, with servants carrying flowers and perfumes and lamps and oil. He met the Elder and gave the offerings and invited him and the resident brother, the next day to his house for meals.

The Resident Brother thought,“I’m losing my hold on the squire; If I drive away the Elder, everything will be alright.” Accordingly, when the Elder came to pay his respects in the early morning, the Brother did not open his lips. The Arahat read the other’s thoughts and going back to his cell, he became absorbed in the bliss of Insight and in the bliss of the Fruits.

Next day, the resident Brother, went alone to the squire’s house. Taking from him his alms-bowl, the squire offered a seat and asked where the Elder was.

The Resident Brother said,“Though I knocked on the door, I couldn’t wake him. I can only presume he is still asleep.”

(Meantime the Arahat, had washed and dressed and risen with bowl and robe in the air and gone elsewhere.)

The squire gave the Brother rice and milk to eat, with ghee and sugar and honey in it. Then he had his bowl washed with perfumed chunam powder and filled meals afresh. He requested the resident brother to give the food to the Elder. The Brother took the food and went his way. Thinking to himself, “If I give it away to a human being, it will be known. If I throw it into the water, the ghee will float on top. And as for throwing it away on the ground, that will only bring all the crows of the district flocking to the spot.” In his perplexity his eye fell on a field that had been fired, and, scraping out the embers, he threw the contents of his bowl into the hole and covered with the embers. The Arahat understood his jealousy and departed.

And then onwards sore affliction befell him and he became like a living ghost. Dying soon after, he was re-born in hell and there was tormented for hundreds of thousands of years. By reason of his ripening sin, in five hundred successive births he was an ogre and never had enough to eat. Next, for five hundred more existences he was a dog, and here too, only on one single day had enough food to eat. Even when he ceased to be a dog, he was only born into a beggar family in a Kasi village. From the hour of his birth, that family became still more poor, and he never got half as much water gruel as he wanted. And he was called Mitta vindaka.

Unable to endure the hunger, his father and mother beat him and drove him away, crying, “Go away! In your way.”

In the course of his wanderings, the little outcast came to Benares, where in those days the Bodhisatta was a teacher of world wide fame with five hundred young Brahmins to teach. In those times the Benares folk used to give food to poor lads and had them taught free, and so this Mitta vindaka also became a charity scholar under the Bodhisatta. But he was fierce and intractable, always fighting with his fellows and heedless of his master’s reproofs. He ran away to a border village where he hired himself out for a living, and married a miserably poor woman by whom he had two children. Later, the villagers paid him to teach them what was true doctrine and what was false, and gave him a hut to live in at the entrance of their village. But, all because of Mitta vindaka’s coming to live among them, the king’s vengeance fell seven times on those villagers, and seven times were their homes burned to the ground; seven times too did their water tank dry up.

Then they considered the matter and agreed that it was not so with them before Mitta vindaka’s coming; but that ever since he came they had been going from bad to worse. So they beat him and drove away from their village. Then along with the family he came to a haunted forest. And there the demons killed and ate his wife and children. Running from there, he came after many wanderings to a village on the coast called Gambhira. On a day when a ship was abou to sail, he hired himself for service aboard. For a week the ship held on her way, but on the seventh day she came to a complete standstill in mid ocean, as though she had run upon a rock. Then they cast lots to find out who the sinner is. Seven times the lot fell on Mitta vindaka. So they gave him a raft of bamboos cast him over board. And the ship was sailing well.

Mitta vindaka caught on to his bamboos and floated on the waves. Thanks to his having obeyed the commandments in the times of the Buddha Kassapa, he found in mid ocean four daughters of the gods dwelling in a palace of crystal, with whom he dwelt happily for seven days. Now palace ghosts enjoy happiness only for seven days at a time; and so, when the seventh day came and they had to depart to their punishment, they left him with an injunction to await their return. But no sooner were they departed, Mitta vindaka put off on his raft again and came to where eight daughters of the gods dwelt in a palace of silver. Leaving them in turn, he came to await their sixteen daughters of the gods dwelt in a palace of jewels, and thereafter to where thirty two dwelt in a palace of gold. Paying no regard to their words, again he sailed away and came to a city of ogres, set among islands. And there an ogress was ranging about in the shape of a goat. Not knowing that she was an ogress, Mitta vindaka thought to make a meal off the goat, and seized hold of the creature by the leg. Straightway, by virtue of her demon nature, she hurled him away and plump he fell in a thorn brake on the slopes of the dry moat of Benares, and then rolled to earth.

At that time thieves used to catch and kill the King’s goats; and the goatherds had hidden themselves hard by to catch the thieves.

Mitta vindaka picked himself up and saw the goats. He thought to himself, “Well, it was a goat in the island hurled me here. Perhaps, if I do the same by one of these goats, I may get hurled back again to where the daughters of the gods dwell in their ocean palaces.” So, without thinking, he seized one of the goats by the leg. At once the goat began to bleat, and the goatherds came running up from every side. They laid hold of him at once, crying, “This is the thief that has so long lived on the King’s goats.” And they beat him and began to haul him away in bonds to the King.

Just at that time the Bodhisatta, with his five hundred young Brahmins round him, was coming out of the city to bathe. Seeing and recognizing Mitta vindaka, he said to the goatherds, “Why? this is a pupil of mine; what have you seized him for?” They said,“Master! We caught this thief in the act of seizing a goat by the leg, and that’s why we’ve got hold of him.” The Bodhisatta said, “Well! suppose you hand him over to us as our slave.”

“All right, sir,” replied the men, and letting their prisoner go, they went their way. Then the Bodhisatta asked Mitta vindaka where he had been all that long time; and Mitta vindaka told him all that he had done.

“Tis through not hearkening to those who wished him well,” said the Bodhisatta, “that he has suffered all these misfortunes.”

And in those times both that Teacher and Mitta vindaka passed away, and their after lot was according to their deeds.