Shepherd——A Buddhist Story

We don't normally collect Buddhist stories, but this story has very similar moral with "He Cried on Wrong Grave--Yan Ren Fan Guo", so we put it here for reference.

Long long time ago, there was a shepherd who was very good at raising sheep. Rich as he was, he was so stingy that he would not spend a penny.

Coveting his money, a swindler found means to make friends with him and said, "Since you and I have become intimate friends united as one man, there should be no gap of any kind between us now. I know a pretty girl from a certain family. I should like you to ask her to be your wife."

The shepherd was glad to hear those words. He gave him a flock of sheep and other precious things.


The swindler then said, "Now your wife has brought a child into the world."

The shepherd was very delighted to learn about this, in spite of the fact that he had not met her yet. Again he gave him more things.

Then one day the swindler said, "Your child is dead shortly after birth."

On hearing those words, the shepherd cried bitterly and sighed ceaselessly.

So are the people at large. There are people who, acquiring much knowledge, put their creed into practice only for fame and gain. They keep secret its teachings, unwilling to preach or to teach the others. Indulging in mundane pleasures, they are cheated by the transience of their bodies like the poor man cheated by the illusion of getting a wife and a child.

Consequently, they lose first their good faith, then their lives and finally their precious possessions. They can then only shed bitter tears by getting depressed and melancholy just like the shepherd.