107. The Story of the Slinging Stone

The Buddha who was bringing happiness to people, when he was living at Jetavana monastery, disclosed this story about a certain clever monk and a slingshot.

A certain man in Sāvatthi was skilled in using a slingshot. One day he was listening to the Buddha and he became pleased with the law. Becoming very familiar with the teachings of the Buddha, he became ordained, received higher ordination, and was admitted among the community of monks. Even though he was admitted in the higher ordination of the monks, yet he was not a monk who was devoted too much to the law, and he did not have much respect for the practice of the law.

This monk went one day to take a bath on the bank of the Aciravatī River with a young novice. Meanwhile two white swans were flying in the sky over them. They saw the two swans and the elder Bhikkhu said to the young one, “Shall I put down the swan who is behind by shooting a slinging stone at his eye?”

The young monk said, “How can you put him down? You have no power to put him down by hitting him.”

Then the elder monk said, “Young monk, if you like not only can I hit the swan in the eye on this side, but also on the far side.”

The young monk thought, “He speaks a lie.” And he said, “If so, then do it.”

Then the other monk took a small triangular shaped stone and threw it behind the swan. The stone, making a noise, caught the swan’s attention. Hearing the sound, the swan thought that there was maybe a danger. Thinking so, it turned to hear the sound better. Then the monk took a round stone and hit the swan in one eye. The stone went out through the other eye, and the swan fell down screaming at their feet.

Thereupon the young monk censured him saying, “You have done a very bad thing.” He took him to the Buddha saying, “Sir, this monk has done such a type of bad thing.” Then the omnipresent one censured the monk and said, “Oh monks, this man is not only clever in this life with a slingshot, but also was clever in the past too.”

Then the Buddha told this story of the past:

At one time, there was a king called Brahmadatta in Benares. Our Enlightenment Being at that time became the minister to the king. At the same time, the king had an advisor Brahmin who was very, very talkative. He was a chatterbox. When he started to speak, he did not let others speak. The king thought, “When will I be able to stop the chatter of this man.” And he was thinking of ways to stop this unusual talking of the Brahmin.

In the meantime, there was a certain crippled man who was very clever in slinging stones. Children in the city put this crippled man on a cart, took him near a spreading Banyan tree that was by the city gate, and kept him there under the large shady Banyan tree. They surrounded him, gave him a little bit of money, and asked him to make elephant forms, horse forms, or something like that in the leaves. The crippled man slung stones over the Banyan leaves and he made lion forms, deer forms and bird forms. He made various types of forms. All the leaves of the Banyan tree now had shaped gaps in them.

When the king was on his way to sport in his pleasure garden, he came to this place. The security people sent the children who surrounded the crippled man away. They fled away here and there as the security people hit them. The cripple was unable to move, and he lay under the Banyan tree. When the king came to the Banyan tree and saw that the leaves of the tree were with shaped gaps, and that the shade was no longer perfect, he looked up at the tree sitting on his chariot and saw that all the gaps formed elephant shapes, lion shapes, horse shapes, and the like. He asked, “Who did this?” Then the officers of the king searched and found the crippled man. The king thought, “This man would be a very good help to stop the talkativeness of the Brahmin.”

The king’s officers saw the crippled man lying down under the tree and said, “Your lordship, here is the man.” And they showed him the cripple. The king summoned him and asked all this retinue to go away. He said, “I have a talkative Brahmin in my court. Can you make him silent?” “Your lordship, if I can have a measure of dry goat’s dung, I can silence him.”

The king took the crippled man to his palace, and keeping him behind a curtain that had a hole in its middle, he made a seat in front of that curtain on which he might sit the Brahmin and left the dry goat’s dung with the crippled man. When the Brahmin came to the court, he was asked to sit on that chair. The Brahmin began to speak.

The Brahmin, without letting anyone else speak, began to talk. The crippled man took the pellets of dry goat’s dung one by one and shot them through the hole into the Brahmin’s mouth. The Brahmin could not drop them out from deference to the king, and he swallowed them. The dry goat’s dung that was about a measure’s worth went into his stomach. The king thought, “He may not be able to digest this dry goat’s dung.” He said, “Hurry up and go home, and bring some leaves of a PiyanÄgu tree with you. Grind them and crush them, drink the juice from that, and vomit. And then be in good health.”

The Brahmin kept his mouth shut from that point on.

The king gave presents to the crippled man, thinking, “This man has given me comfort to my ears by making the Brahmin silent.” He gave him four villages in each of the four directions, which produced 100,000 gold coins per year.

Then the Enlightenment Being came to the king and said, “Your lordship, education must be obtained by wise people in the world. Even the crippled man, having learned to sling stones and being skilled in this art has gotten such an immense wealth. Therefore, your lordship, look at this crippled man using dry goat’s dung who has gotten so much wealth. The advantage of education is endless.” He emphasized again and again the value of learning.

Lord Buddha, the master, disclosed this Dhamma sermon and ended this story of the Sālittaka-Jātaka [this Story of the Slinging Stone].

“The cripple at that time was this monk who killed the swan. The king was the venerable Ānanda. The wise minister was the fully enlightened one who am I, the teacher of the three worlds.”

The moral: “Whatever you learn brings you wealth and happiness.”

107. The Story of the Slinging Stone

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