Hirijātaka

Conscience

“Who spite of honour”—This story the Master, when dwelling at Jetavana, told concerning a rich merchant, a friend of Anathapindika, who lived in a border province. Both the introductory story and the story of the past are related in full in the concluding Birth of the ninth division of the first book, but in this version when the merchant of Benares was told that the followers of the foreign merchant were mulcted of all their property and, after losing everything they possessed, had to take to flight, he said, “Because they failed to do what they ought for the strangers who came to them, they find no one ready to do them a good turn.” And so saying he repeated these verses: