Once on a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, there was a Brahmin who knew the charm called Vedabbha. Now this charm, so they say, was precious beyond all price. For, if at a certain conjunction of the planets the charm was repeated and the gaze bent upwards to the skies, straightway from the heavens there rained the Seven Things of Price, gold, silver, pearl, coral, catseye, ruby, and diamond.

In those days the Bodhisatta was a pupil of this brahmin; and one day his master left the village on some business or other, and came with the Bodhisatta to the country of Ceti.

Five hundred robbers, known as “the Despatchers” lived in a forest. These robbers will catch 2 passengers and used to despatch one to fetch the ransom; and that’s why they were called the Despatchers. The Brahmin has to cross that forest to go to Ceti. These robbers caught the Bodhisatta and the Vedabbha, the brahmin. They kept the Vedabbha, and sent the Bodhisatta for the ransom. And the Bodhisatta said with a bow to his master; in a day or two I shall pay. Vedabbha said, ”To-day will come to pass the conjunction of the planets which brings about the rain of the wealth. I will chant the charm and pay the robbers.”

“Master! Please listen. If you chant the charm and call down the wealth shower, calamity will certainly befall both you and this band of robbers.” With this warning to his master, the Bodhisatta went his way in quest of the ransom.

At sunset the robbers bound the Brahmin and laid him by the heels. Just at this moment the full moon rose over the eastern horizon, and the Brahmin, studying the heavens, knew that the great conjunction was taking place. He thought,”Why should I suffer this misery? By repeating the charm I will call down the precious rain, pay the robbers the ransom, and go free.” So he called out to the robbers, “Friends! why do you take me a prisoner?”

They said,”To get a ransom, sir.”

Vedabbha said,”Well! if that is all you want, untie me; bathe me; and give new clothes; and let me be perfumed and decked with flowers. Then leave me to myself.” The robbers did as he told them. And the brahmin, marking the conjunction of the planets, repeated his charm with eyes uplifted to the heavens. Immediately Things of Price poured down from the skies! The robbers picked them all up, wrapping their booty into bundles with their cloaks. Then with their brethren they marched away; and the Brahmin followed in the rear.

But, as luck would have it, the party was captured by a second band of five hundred robbers! “Why do you seize us?” said the first to the second band. “For booty,” was the answer. “If booty is what you want, seize on that Brahmin, who by simply gazing up at the skies brought down riches as rain. It was he who gave us all that we have got.” So the second band of robbers let the first band go, and seized on the Brahmin, crying, “Give us riches too!”

Vedabbha said,”It would give me great pleasure. But it will be a year before the requisite conjunction of the planets takes place again. If you will only be so good as to wait till then, I will invoke the precious shower for you.”

“Rascally brahmin!” cried the angry robbers, “You made the other band rich off-hand, but want us to wait a whole year!” And they cut him in two with a sharp sword, and flung his body in the middle of the road. Then hurrying after the first band of robbers, they killed every robber and seized the booty. Next, to have more share, they divided into two companies and fought among themselves. The process continued till only two were left alive. Thus did those thousand men come to destruction.

Now, when the two survivors had managed to carry off the treasure they hid it in the jungle near a village; and one of them sat there, sword in hand, to guard it, while the other went into the village to get rice and have it cooked for supper.

“Covetousness is the root of ruin!” mused he that stopped by the treasure. “When my mate comes back, he’ll want half of this. Suppose I kill him the moment he gets back.” So he drew his sword and sat waiting for his comrade’s return.

Meanwhile, the other had equally reflected that the booty had to be halved, and thought to himself, “Suppose I poison the rice, and give it him to eat and so kill him, and have the whole of the treasure to myself.”

Accordingly, when the rice was boiled, he first ate his own share, and then put poison in the rest, which he carried back with him to the jungle. But scarce had he set it down, when the other robber cut him in two with his sword, and hid the body away in a secret spot. Then he ate the poisoned rice, and died then and there. Thus, by reason of the treasure, not only the brahmin but all the robbers came to destruction.

How be it, after a day or two the Bodhisatta came back with the ransom. Not finding his master where he had left him, but seeing treasure scattered all round, his heart misgave him that, in spite of his advice, his master must have called down a shower of treasure from the skies, and that all must have perished in consequence; and he proceeded along the road. On his way he came to where his master’s body lay cloven in twain upon the way. He cried, “Alas! he is dead through not heeding my warning.” Then with gathered sticks he made a pyre and burnt his master’s body, making an offering of wild flowers. Further along the road, he came upon the five hundred “Despatchers” and further still upon the two hundred and fifty, and so on by degrees until at last he came to where lay only two corpses. Marking how of the thousand all but two had perished, and feeling sure that there must be two survivors, and that these could not refrain from strife, he pressed on to see where they had gone. So on he went till he found the path by which with the treasure they had turned into the jungle; and there he found the heap of bundles of treasure, and one robber lying dead with his rice–bowl overturned at his side.

Realising the whole story at a glance, the Bodhisatta set himself to search for the missing man, and at last found his body in the secret spot where it had been flung. The Bodhisatta mused, “And thus, throught not following my counsel my master in his self – will has been the means of destroying not himself only but a thousand others also. Truly, they that seek their own gain by mistaken and misguided measures shall reap ruin, even as my master.”

The Bodhisatta said, “And even as my master’s misguided and misplaced effort in causing the rain of treasure to fall from heaven wrought both his own death and the destruction of others with him, even so shall every other man who by mistaken means seeks to compass his own advantage, utterly perish and involve others in his destruction.”

With these words did the Bodhisatta make the forest ring; and he preached the Truth, while the Tree- fairies shouted applause. The treasure he contrived to carry off to his own home, where he lived out his term of life in the exercise of alms-giving and other good works. And when his life closed, he departed to the heaven he had won.