Reading Notes: Jataka Tales, Part A

The Silk Merchants by Edwin Lord Weeks, via Wikimedia Commons

In "The Merchant of Seri," there are two merchants. One is a good and honest man; the other is a greedy and dishonest one.

Both merchants entered a town one day and divided the streets evenly between them. A poor old woman and her granddaughter lived in a house along one of the streets assigned to the greedy merchant. The poor woman did not think they had any money or valuable belongings even though their family was once very rich.

When the greedy merchant walked by the poor woman's house her granddaughter begged her to buy something for her. When she told her granddaughter that they did not have any money or even something to barter with, the granddaughter insisted the grandmother try to trade an old bowl they never used. The old woman didn't think the bowl was anything special, she just kept it because her late husband used to eat out of it.

However, she brought it to the greedy merchant and asked if he would trade her anything for it. Upon inspecting the bowl the merchant could tell that it was in fact a very valuable gold bowl, but being greedy, he wanted to pay as little as possible for this treasure. The merchant told the old woman the bowl was worthless, threw it on the ground, and left.

Later that day when the honest merchant came down their street the little girl asked her grandmother to try and buy something from this merchant since he looked kinder. When the woman asked the honest merchant what he would give her for the bowl he immediately told her it was worth more than all his wares and money.

The old woman insisted on trading the bowl, and the kind merchant gave her everything he had, only keeping 8 pennies, just enough to buy him passage on a boat across the river to the next town.

Later that day the greedy merchant returned to the woman's home offering to buy her bowl for something. When she told him that another merchant had bought it from her, he was very angry and went looking for the kind merchant.

He eventually found the kind merchant in a boat about to head across the river, but could not reach him before he left the bank.

Bibliography.
"The Merchant of Seri" from Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbit. Source