399. DSC 253/4th Sem - Jataka Tales (The Golden Plate)
The Golden Plate" is a Jataka tale contrasting two merchants: one greedy and dishonest, the other honest. When a poor girl offers a black, sooty bowl for trade, the greedy merchant scorns it, but realizes it's gold and tries to cheat her. The honest merchant recognizes its value, pays fair price, and the greedy one dies in rage.
In length the story runs like this: Once upon a time, there lived a merchant of Seri, who sold brass and tin ware. He used to go from place to place, in order to sell his products. He was usually accompanied by another merchant, who also sold brass and tin ware. The second merchant was greedy. He wanted every thing for free and if he bought something, he paid as little as possible.
One day, when they went to a town, they divided the streets between them so that none of them interferes in each other’s marketing. Both of them moved through the streets they had chosen and called, “Tin ware for sale. Brass for sale”. People came out of their homes and traded with them.
There lived a poor old woman and her granddaughter in a house. Once the family had been affluent, but now a golden plate was the only expensive item left with them. The grandmother didn’t know that it was a golden plate. However, she had kept this plate because in the old days, her husband used to eat from it. It was placed on a shelf among the other pots and pans not in the regular use.
The greedy merchant passed this house, calling, “Buy tin ware. Buy brass utensils”. The grand-daughter heard the cries and said to her grandmother, “Grandmother, please buy something for me”. The old woman replied, “Child, we are too poor to buy anything. Even, I don’t have anything to trade”. The girl said, “We have one old plate. Let’s see what the merchant will offer for the old plate. We don’t use it often and perhaps, he will take it and give us something that we want”.
The old woman called the merchant at the door-step of her house. She showed him the plate and said, “Sir, will you take this plate and give something in return to this little girl”. The greedy man took the plate and accidentally scratched its backside with a needle. He found that it was a golden plate. He hoped that he would fetch it without paying anything. He said, “Does it worth? Not even a half penny”. He went away throwing the plate on the ground.
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!
Key Details of the Tale:
Characters: The greedy merchant (Seri-vanija) and the honest merchant (Bodhisatta/Buddha in a past life).
The Plot: A poor grandmother and granddaughter try to trade an old, soot-covered plate for a bracelet. The greedy merchant tries to cheat them by claiming it is worthless. The honest merchant realizes the plate is solid gold, pays the full price, and leaves.
The Outcome: The greedy merchant, in a rage, tries to chase the honest merchant, but fails. He becomes so enraged that he suffers a fatal heart attack.
Moral: "Honesty is the best policy".
This story emphasizes the Buddhist values of integrity and fairness, showing that greed leads to destruction, while honesty brings prosperity.