Once upon a time there were two friends in a small village named Dharmabuddhi (Virtuous-Mind) and Papabuddhi (Wicked-Mind). One day, the wicked of the two, Papabuddhi, thought to himself that he was poor and lacked the knowledge to earn for himself. He thought of taking Dharmabuddhi to another kingdom and use his skills to make money. He thought, “If i can deprive him of all the earnings, i can have all the money and live happily”. He said to Dharmabuddhi, “My friend, we need to earn money to provide for ourselves when we grow old. Let us travel to some other kingdom to earn money. Dharmabuddhi agreed and took the blessings of his parents and teachers to travel to a distant kingdom. They began their journey. The two of them made a lot of money due to Dharmabuddhi’s skills and knowledge. After some time, pleased with their earnings, they planned to return home. On their way to their home, as they approached their village, Papabuddhi said to Dharmabuddhi, “Friend, It will be improper for us to carry so much money home as all our friends and relatives will start requesting us money. Besides, there is danger of theft.” He said, “Let us bury the money in the jungle, where nobody will find it, after taking only a nominal amount for our needs. Whenever we need some money, we can come back together and dig it out”. Dharmabuddhi agreed. They buried most of the money beneath a tree and returned home with only a handful of money. Few days later, Papbuddhi went to jungle alone in the dead of the night. He uncovered all the money they had buried together and closed the pit. He returned back home with all the money, and hid it. After a few days, pretending that nothing has happened, he went to meet Dharmabuddhi, “Friend, i have a large family and the money i had come with – have been spent already. Let us go together to the place we have buried our money to fetch some more.” Dharmabuddhi agreed and together they went to the place of buried money.But they found money was not there. Papabuddhi started blaming Dharmabuddhi, “It is you who has stolen money. Nobody else knew where we have buried the money. If you do not give me my half of the money, otherwise i shall go and complain to the village elders for justice.” Taken aback, Dharmabuddhi protested, “I have not committed such theft. i am a virtuous man”. And so, they started quarrelling, and visited the village elders for justice. The elders asked them to pledge before the Fire-God to find the truth. Papabuddhi suggested, “Before pledging before the Fire-God, we can request the spirit of the tree to stand witness. It was in front of a big tree that we had buried all the money; and it may be able to reveal to us who the thief is”. The judges agreed, “We shall go the jungle together, and request the spirit of the tree to reveal the truth to us. If that fails, we will take pledge before the Fire-God.” Papabuddhi immediately went home to his father, “i have stolen a huge amount of money from Dharmabuddhi. Your co-operation will save me and put the blame on Dharmabuddhi. Otherwise, i shall not only lose the money but face the risk of losing my life for stealing”. His father said, “My son, tell me how can i help you. Papabuddhi explained, “There is a huge hollow inside the big tree where we had buried the money. You have to get inside the hollow before morning. When all of us go to the jungle to request spirit of tree to reveal truth, you have to shout from inside that Dharmabuddhi is the real thief. As agreed, his father went to the jungle and hid himself in the hollow of the tree early next morning. Next day Papabuddhi asked in a loud voice, “O spirit of the tree. Please tell us who thief is ,Immediately Papabuddhi’s father replied from inside the hollow of the tree, “Listen all Dharmabuddhi is the thief, who has stolen all money.” The village elders were wonderstruck. They could not deny that the spirit of the tree had indeed revealed the truth. Meanwhile Dharmabuddhi became sure seeing this that there must be something wrong. The spirit of the tree, if it was so, Is telling untruth. That is not possible. He put a heap of dried leaves and grass in front of hollow of tree and set fire to it. When fire started flaring up, Papabuddhi’s father could not bear the heat and smoke, he came out, with burns on his body. He confessed his part, and explained the village elders what his son had done. Thus, the village elders decided to punish Papabuddhi for his acts .They hung Papabuddhi on the very same tree, and praised Dharmabuddhi for his wit.
Moral of story: Avoid bad company
