Once on a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, the Bodhisatta came to life as the child of the Queen. When he grew up, he mastered every accomplishment; and when, at his father’s death, he came to be king, he proved a righteous king. Now he used to play at dice with his chaplain, and, as he flung the golden dice upon the silver table, he would sing this catch for luck:-

Tis nature’s law that rivers wind;

Trees grow of wood by law of kind;

And, given opportunity,

All women work iniquity.

As these lines always made the king win the game, the chaplain decided to break the sequence of the catch. He planned to take a new-born female baby and keep her under his thumb as she grows up, with a close guard over her, so that none may come near her and that she may be true to one man. Then I shall win of the king, and grow rich. He took a new-born female baby and appointed only women to look after her. He put her in a seven storied castle which is guarded well by women soldiers. No man but the Chaplain was ever allowed to see the girl and the girl had not seen a man other than the chaplain. Now, while the girl was growing up, the chaplain used to play dice with the king; but when she was grown up and under his own control, he challenged the king to a game. The king accepted, and play began. But, when in throwing the dice the king sang his lucky catch, the chaplain added, “always excepting my girl.” And then luck changed, and it was now the chaplain who won, while the king lost.

Thinking the matter over, the Bodhisatta suspected the chaplain had a virtuous girl shut up in his house; and enquiry proved his suspicions true. Then, in order to work her fall, he sent for a clever scamp, and asked whether he thought he could seduce the girl. “Certainly, sir,” said the scamp. So the king gave him money, and sent him away with orders to lose no time.

With the king’s money the scamp bought perfumes and incense and aromatics of all sorts, and opened a perfumery shop close to the chaplain’s house. The very baskets that contained food were examined before they were passed in. The baskets containing the dust and sweepings were checked before they are thrown out. The girl had only a single waiting woman. This woman had money given her to buy flowers and perfumes for her mistress, and on her way she used to pass near the shop which the scamp had opened. And he, knowing very well that she was the girl’s attendant, watched one day for her coming, and, rushing out of his shop, fell at her feet, clasping her knees tightly with both hands and blubbering out, “O my mother! Where have you been all this long time?”

And his confederates, who stood by his side, praised the likeness. As one and all kept talking on the marvelous likeness, the poor woman lost her head. Crying out that it must be her boy, she too burst into tears. And with weeping and tears the two fell to embracing one another. Then said the man, “Where are you living, mother?”

She said,”Up at the chaplain’s castle, my son. He has a young wife of peerless beauty, a very goddess for grace; and I’m her waiting woman.” “And where are you going now, mother?”

“To buy her perfumes and flowers.”

“Why go elsewhere for them?

Come to my shop for them in future,” said the scamp. And he gave the woman everything free of cost. Struck with the quantity of flowers perfumes which the waiting woman brought home, the girl asked why the Chaplain was so pleased with her that day.

“Why do you say that, my dear?” asked the old woman.

“Because of the quantity of things you have brought home.”

The old woman said,”No, it isn’t that the Chaplain was liberal in spending his money; I got them at my son’s shop free.” And from that day onwards she kept the money the Chaplain gave her, and got her flowers and other things free of charge at her son’s shop.

And he, a few days later, pretending to be ill, was lying in bed. So when the old woman came to the shop and asked for her son, she was told he had been taken ill. Hastening to his side, she fondly stroked his shoulders, as she asked what ailed him. But he made no reply. The woman insisted and asked, ”if you don’t tell me whom are you to tell?”

Son told,”Hearing the praises of your young mistress’s beauty, I have fallen in love with her. If I win her, I shall live; if not, this will be my death bed.”

The old woman said,”Leave that to me, my boy. don’t worry yourself on this account.” Then with a heavy load of perfumes and flowers she went to the girl and told the girl,”Alas! My son is in love with you merely because I told him how beautiful you are! What is to be done?”

The girl said,”Smuggle him into the castle.”

The old woman cleaned and heaped the dust. She carried the dust in a huge flower basket, and tried to pass out with it. When the usual search was made, she emptied dust over the woman on guard, who ran away under such ill treatment. Likewise, she dealt with all the other watchers. From that time onwards, whatever carried in or out by the Woman was not checked by the guards. The old woman smuggled the scamp into the house in a flower basket, and brought him to her young mistress. He succeeded in wrecking the girl’s virtue, and actually stayed a day or two in the upper rooms, hiding when the chaplain was at home, and enjoying the company of his mistress when the chaplain was off the premises. A day or two passed and the girl said to her lover to go away. Before going, he wanted to hit the chaplain. When the Chaplain came in again, she exclaimed, “Oh, my dear husband, I would like to dance, if you would play the lute for me.” “Yes” said the chaplain.

“But I shall be too ashamed, if you’re looking. Let me hide your eyes with a cloth; and then I will dance.” “All right,” said the chaplain. So she took a thick cloth and tied it over the Chaplain’s face so as to blindfold him. And, blindfolded as he was, the Chaplain began to play the lute. After dancing awhile, she cried, “My dear, I should like to hit you once on the head.” “Hit away,” said the unsuspecting chaplain. Then the girl made a sign to her lover; and he softly came behind the Chaplain and hit him on the head. Such was the force of the blow, that the Chaplain’s eyes were like to start out of his head, and a bump rose up on the spot. With pain, he called to the girl to give him her hand; and she placed it in his. Chaplain said,”Ah! It’s a soft hand; but it hits hard!,”

Now, the girl took the bandage off the chaplain’s eyes and rubbed his bruised head with oil. The moment the Chaplain went out, the scamp was transported in his basket again by the old woman out of the house. Making his way at once to the king, he told him the whole adventure.

Accordingly, when the Chaplain met him, the king proposed a game with the dice; the Chaplain was willing; and the dicing table was brought out. As the king made his throw, he sang his old catch, and the Chaplain ignorant of the girl’s naughtiness added his “always excepting my girl,” and nevertheless lost!

Then the king, who did know what had passed, said to his chaplain, “Why except her? Her virtue has given way. Ah, you dreamed that by taking a girl in the hour of her birth and by placing a sevenfold guard round her, you could be certain of her. Why, you couldn’t be certain of a woman, even if you had her inside you and always walked about with her. No woman is ever faithful to one man alone. As for that girl of yours, she told you she should like to dance, and having first blindfolded you as you played the lute to her, she let her lover strike you on the head, and then smuggled him out of the house. Where is your exception?”

The Bodhisatta expounded the Truth to the Chaplain. The girl pleaded,”Indeed I am innocent; indeed it was my own hand, and nobody else’s, that struck you; and, if you do not believe me, I will enter fire to prove that no man’s hand has touched me but yours and so I will make you believe me.”

“So be it,” said the Chaplain and arrangements were made.

Now before this the girl had instructed her attendant as follows:- “Tell your son, mother, to be there and to seize my hand just as I am about to go into the fire.” And the old woman did as she was told and the scamp came and stood in the crowd. Then, to delude the Chaplain, the girl, standing there before all the people, exclaimed with fervor, “No man’s hand but thine, Chaplain, has ever touched me; and, by the truth of my asseveration I call on this fire to harm me not.” So saying, she advanced to the burning pile, when up dashed her lover, who seized her by the hand, crying shame on the Chaplain who could force so fair a maid to enter the flames! Shaking her hand free, the girl exclaimed to the Chaplain that what she had told was now undone, and that she could not now embrace fire. “Why not?” said the Chaplain. “Because,” she replied, “my asseveration was that no man’s hand but thine had ever touched me; and now here is a man who has seized hold of my hand!” But the Chaplain, knowing that he was tricked, drove her from him with blows.

From this, we learn, the wickedness of women. What crime will they not commit; and then, to deceive their husbands, what oaths will they not take aye, in the light of day that they did it not! So false hearted are they! Therefore has it been said:-

A sex composed of wickedness and guile,

Unknowable, uncertain as the path

Of fishes in the water, womankind

Hold truth for falsehood, falsehood for the truth!

As greedily as cows seek pastures new,

Women, unrated, yearn for mate on mate.

As sand unstable, cruel as the snake,

Women know all things; naught from them is hid!