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Cullaka-Setthi-Jataka

A young man picks up a dead mouse which he sells, and works up this capital till he becomes rich.

Pictured by: PongPang
Coloured by: Pupay

Cullaka-Setthi-Jataka

        A Young Man Picks Up a Dead Mouse Which He Sells, and Works up This Capital till He Becomes Rich

The Origin of the Story

        Tradition tells us that the daughter of a rich merchant’s family in Rajagaha actually stooped to intimacy with a slave.  Becoming alarmed lest her misconduct should get known, so with their belongings in their hands they stole together out by the hardly-opened door, and fled away, they cared not whither, to find a shelter beyond the ken of her family.  Then they went and lived together in a certain place, with the result that they had two children, the elder named ‘Great Wayman and the younger named ‘Little Wayman’.  When the children grown up, they kept on speaking about their relatives; so finally, those two took their children and coming in due course to Rajagaha.   Her parents denied to accept the two back but asked the children were sent to them.  

        So the children grew up in their grandfather’s house,—Little Wayman being of tender years, while Great Wayman used to go with his grandfather to hear the Lord Buddha preach the truth and later decided to enter the monkhood.  Then the Venerable admitted the lad Little Wayman and established him in the Ten Commandments. But Venerable Little Wayman proved a dullard: with four months’ study he failed to get by heart this single stanza.  The elder venerable asked Venerable Little Wayman to leave the monkhood.

        Now at that time, Venerable Great Wayman was acting as steward.  And Jivaka Komarabhacca, going to his mango-grove with a large present of perfumes and flowers for the Lord Buddha, had presented his offering and listened to a discourse; then, rising from his seat and bowing to the Lord Buddha, he went up to Venerable Great Wayman to ask for monks to have a meal in his residence.  Venerable Great Wayman accepted the invitation for every monk but Venerable Little Wayman.   

        On his way to leave his monkhood on the following day, Venerable Little Wayman saw the Lord Buddha.  He went to pay homage to the Lord and informed him as such.  The Lord Buddha took Little Wayman and seated him at the door of his own perfumed chamber.  Then giving him a perfectly clean cloth which he had supernaturally created, the Blessed One told him to face towards the East and as he handled this cloth, repeated these words— ‘Removal of Impurity; Removal of Impurity.’  

        Then at the time appointed He, attended by the monks, went to Jivaka’s house and sat down on the seat set for him.  And as Venerable Little Wayman kept handling the piece of cloth, it grew soiled.  Then he thought that just now that piece of cloth was quite clean but his personality has destroyed its original state and made it dirty.  Impermanent indeed was all compounded things.  And even as he realized death and decay, he won the Arahat’s illumination.

        At the Jivaka’s house, the Lord Buddha told Jivaka that there was a monk left in the temple so he sent a servant to go and see whether or not there were any monks in the monastery.  At that moment Venerable Little Wayman, conscious as he was that his brother was declaring there were no monks in the monastery, determined to show him there were and so filled the whole mango grove with nothing but monks.  

        Finding this host of monks in the monastery, the man returned and said that the whole mango grove was full of monks.  The Lord Buddha told him to go back and took by the hand the first one of them who said he was Little Wayman and the others would all vanish.  The man did as he was bidden and straightway the thousand monks vanished from sight.  Venerable Little Wayman came back with the man to Jivaka’s house.

        At even, the orange-robed monks assembled together from all sides in the hall of truth and sang the Lord Buddha’s praises.  And when they had told Him word for word what they had been saying, the Lord said, Monks, through me Little Wayman had just now risen to great things in the faith; in times past it was to great things in the way of wealth that he rose.  The monks asked the Lord Buddha to explain this and the Blessed One made clear in these words a thing which succeeding existences had hidden from them. 

The Story of Jataka - 

The Revealing of the Identities - 

What Are Learnt from the Story: 

        For those start-ups, the food of thought for their future as:  

        1. Do not be too fussy about career opportunity.

        2. Do not be lazy.

        3. Do not be careless. 
 
        For those aspiring for success, the food of thought for their career as:

        1. Being knowledgeable.

        2. Being capable.

        3. Well behaving

        4. Possessing past accumulated merit. 

 
 
The End