The Golden Plate

Greed and Honesty

Long ago in a place called Seri, two salesmen sold pots, They also agreed that it was alright for the other to hawk his wares after the first had gone through his designated area.

One day, one of them was coming down a street when a poor little girl saw him and asked her grandmother to buy her a bracelet. "We are too poor. We can't afford it," replied the old grandmother. "Since we don't have any money, we can exchange one with our black sooty old plate," suggested the little girl. The old woman agreed to give it a try, and so she invited the dealer in.

Seeing that they were poor humble people who probably had no money, the salesman did not want to waste his time with them. Though the old woman pleaded with him, he said he had no bracelet that she could afford to buy. Then she asked: "We have an old plate that is useless to us, can we barter it for a bracelet?" The man took the plate and examine it. He accidentally scratched the bottom of the plate, and to his surprise, discovered gold gleaming underneath the black soot. The black sooty old plate was actually a golden plate! But he didn't tell the old woman of his discovery. Instead, he decided to deceive her so he could get the plate for virtually nothing. "This is not worth even one bracelet. There is no value in this. I don't want it!" he lied and left thinking he would return later when they would accept something of a lesser value for the plate.

Meanwhile, the second salesman who had finished peddling in his appointed part of the town came to the area where the first had been earlier. He ended up at the same house. Again, the poor little girl begged her grandmother to trade the old plate for a bracelet. Seeing that the merchant was a nice gentle-looking man, the old woman invited him in and offered to trade the same black sooty old plate for one bracelet. When he examined it, he also noticed it was pure gold under the grime. "All that I own, my goods and all my money, are not worth as much as this gold plate!" he exclaimed kindly to the old woman.

Of course, the woman was shocked when she heard this, but the merchant's honesty also proved that he was indeed a good and honest fellow to her. So she said she would be happy to accept whatever he could trade for it. "I'll give you all my pots, pans, trinkets, plus all my money, if you will let me keep just eight coins and my balancing scale, with its cover to put the gold plate in," said the salesman. "Deal," replied the old woman. The trade was made and the second merchant went down to the river, where he used his remaining eight coins to pay the boatman to ferry him across.

Meanwhile, the greedy salesman had return to the old woman's house, dreaming of huge imaginary profits in his head. When he met the little girl and her grandmother again, he told them he had changed his mind and was willing to offer a few cents, but not one of his bracelets, for the useless black sooty old plate. "Sir, you lied to us," replied the old woman and then she calmly told him of the trade she had just struck with the honest salesman.

Instead of being ashamed, she greedy salesman was upset that he had lost the precious plate that must be worth a hundred thousand. "Which way did he go?" asked the dishonest merchant, She told him the direction, and he promptly dropped all his things at her doorstep and ran down to the river, thinking: "He robbed me! He robbed me! He won't make a fool out of me!"

At the riverbank, he saw the boatman ferrying the honest salesman halfway across the river. "Come back, come back!" He shouted to the boatman. But the good merchant instructed him to keep rowing, and so he continued crossing the river.

Seeing that there was nothing he could do, the greedy salesman exploded with rage. He beat his chest, and jumped up and down. He was so angry and filled with so much hatred for the honest man, who had gotten the golden plate, that he coughed out blood, had a heart attack and died on the spot!

The moral is: Honesty is the best policy.
The Bodhisattva: The honest salesman