Once upon a time a king called Janaka was reigning in Benares. At that time the Bodhisatta was born in a brahmin family, and they called his name young Senaka. When he grew up he learned all the arts at Takkasila, and returning to Benares saw the king. the king appointed him as minister and gave him great glory. He taught the king things temporal and spiritual. The Bodhisatta taught the law in a decorate room in the middle of a deer-skin-couch and his word was like the preaching of Buddhas.

Then an old brahmin begging for money-alms got a thousand pieces, left them in a brahmin family and went to seek alms again. When he had gone, that family spent all his pieces. He came back and asked his money. The brahmin, unable to give him the money, gave him his daughter to wife. The other brahmin took her and made his dwelling in a brahmin village not far from Benares. Because of her youth his wife was unsatisfied in desires and sinned with another young brahmin.

There are sixteen things that cannot be satisfied; and what are these sixteen? The sea is not satisfied with all rivers, nor the fire with fuel, nor a king with his kingdom, nor a fool with sins, nor a woman with three things, intercourse, adornment and child-bearing, nor a brahmin with sacred texts, nor a sage with ecstatic meditation, nor a sikha with honour, nor one free from desire with penance, nor the energetic man with energy, nor the talker with talk, nor the politic man with the council, nor the believer with serving the church, nor the liberal man with giving away, nor the learned with hearing the law, nor the four congregations with seeing the Buddha.

So this brahmin woman being unsatisfied with intercourse, wished to put her husband away and do her sin with boldness. So one day, his wife said, “Brahmin, I cannot do the work of your house, get me a maid.” “Wife, I have no money, what shall I give her.” She insisted to get a servant and she did so. She filled a skin-bag with baked meal and unbaked meal, and gave them to him. The brahmin, going through villages, towns and cities, got seven hundred pieces, and thinking, “This money is enough to buy slaves,” he was returning to his own village; at a the bank of a river, he opened his bag, and eating some meal he went down to drink water without tying the mouth. Then a black snake in a hollow tree, smelling the meal, entered the bag and lay down in a coil eating the meal. The brahmin came, and without looking inside fastened the sack and putting it on his shoulder went on his way. Then a spirit living in a tree, sitting in a hollow of the trunk, said to him on the way, “Brahmin, if you stop on the way you will die, if you go home to-day your wife will die,” and vanished. He looked, but not seeing the spirit was afraid and troubled with the fear of death, and so come to the gate of Benares weeping and lamenting.

It was the fast on the fifteenth day, the day of the Bodhisatta’s preaching. Everybody was talking that wise Senaka preaches the law. He thought, “They say he is a wise preacher, and I am troubled with the fear of death; wise men are able to take away even great sorrow; it is right for me too to go there and hear the law.” So he went with them, and when the assembly and the king among them had sat down round about the Bodhisatta, he stood at the outside, not far from the seat of the law, with his mealsack on his shoulder, afraid with the fear of death. The Bodhisatta preached as if he were bringing down the river of heaven. Everybody applauded. Wise men have far sight. At that moment the Bodhisatta, opening his eyes surveyed the assembly on every side. Seeing that brahmin, thought, “This great assembly has become well pleased and listens to the law, making applause, but that one brahmin is ill pleased and weeps; there must be some sorrow within him to cause his tears. So he called him, “Brahmin! I am wise Senaka! now will I make you free from sorrow, speak boldly.”

Then the brahmin, declaring his cause of sorrow, spoke:–

If I go home my wife it is must die,

If I go not, the yakkha said, it is I ;

That is the thought that pierces cruelly;

Explain the matter, Senaka, to me.

The Bodhisatta, hearing the brahmin’s words, thinking, “There are many causes of death to beings in this world; some die sunk in the sea, or seized therein by ravenous fish, some falling in the Ganges, or sized by crocodiles, some falling from a tree or pierced by a thorn, some struck by weapons of divers kinds, some by eating poison or hanging or falling from a precipice or by extreme cold or attacked by diseases of divers kinds, so they die; now among so many causes of death from which cause shall this brahmin die if he stays on the road to-day, or his wife if he goes home?” As he considered, he saw the sack on the brahmin’s shoulder and thought, “There must be a snake who has gone into that sack, and entering he must have gone in from the smell of the meal when the brahmin at his breakfast had eaten some meal and gone to drink water without fastening the sack’s mouth; the brahmin coming back after drinking water must have gone on after fastening and taking up the sack without seeing that the snake had entered; if he stays on the road, he will say at evening when he rests, ‘I will eat some meal,’ and opening the sack will put in his hand; then the snake will bite him in the hand and destroy his life; this will be the cause of his death if he stays on the road; but if he goes home the sack will come into his wife’s hand; she will say, ‘I will look at what is inside,’ and opening the sack put in her hand, then the snake will bite her and destroy her life, and this will be the cause of her death if he goes home to-day.”

He told the brahmin what had happened. He asked him to open the sack carefully and told him to hit the snake.

The brahmin, hearing the Great Being’s words, did so, though alarmed and frightened. The snake came out of the sack when his hood was struck with the stick, and stood looking at the crowd.

A snake-charmer made a mouth-band for the snake, caught him and let him loose in the forest. The brahmin, coming up to the king, saluted him. After praising the king, he took seven hundred pieces from the bag and praising the Bodhisatta, he gave them to him.

The Bodhisatta refused the gift and asked the king to give him one thousand coins.

The Bodhisatta told the brahmin, “Your wife is doing sin with another, and sent you away; if you take these pieces home, she will give to her lover the pieces won by your labour; therefore you should not go home straight, but only after leaving the pieces outside the town at the root of a tree or somewhere.” So he sent him away. He, coming near the village, left his pieces at the root of a tree, and came home in the evening. His wife at that moment was seated with her lover. The brahmin stood at the door and called her. She recognized his voice, and putting out the light opened the door; when the brahmin came in, she sent her lover out. Then coming back and not seeing anything in the sack she asked, “Brahmin, what have you brought?” “A thousand pieces.” “Where is it?” “It is left at such and such a place; never mind, we will get it to-morrow.” She went and told her lover. He went and took it as if it were his own treasure. Next day the brahmin went, and not seeing the pieces came to the Bodhisatta and told everything. Then the Great Being caused seven days’ expenses to be given him and said, “Go, do you two invite and entertain the first day fourteen brahmins, seven for yourself and seven for your wife; from next day onwards take one less each day, till on the seventh day you invite one brahmin and your wife one; then if you notice that the brahmin your wife asks on the seventh day has come every time, tell me.” The brahmin did so, and told the Bodhisatta, “O sage, I have observed the brahmin who is always our guest.” The Bodhisatta sent men with him to bring that other brahmin, and asked him, “Did you take a thousand pieces belonging to this brahmin from the root of such and such a tree?” “I did not, O sage.” “You did not know that I am the wise Senaka; I will make you fetch those pieces.” He was afraid and confessed, saying, “I took them.” “What did you do?” “I put them in such and such a place, I sage.” The Bodhisatta asked the first brahmin, “Brahmin, will you keep your wife or take another?” “Let me keep her, O sage.” The Bodhisatta sent men to fetch the pieces and the wife, and gave the brahmin the pieces from the thief’s hand; he punished the other, removing him from the city, punished also the wife, and gave great honour to the brahmin, making him dwell near himself.

After the lesson, the Master declared the Truths, and identified the Birth:– At tha end of the Truths, many attained the fruition of the First Path:– “At that time the brahmin was Ananda,, the spirit Sariputta, the assembly was the church of Buddha, and wise Senaka was myself.”