The Mouse Merchant [Diligence and Gratitude]
The Khuddaka Nikaya is the fifth of the Nikayas found in the Sutta Pitaka, and consist of a collection of short suttas. Amongst them is the Jataka, which contain the birth stories told by the Buddha. In one such sutta, CULLAKA-SEṬṬHI-JĀTAKA, the Mouse Merchant, the Buddha tells of a rags-to-riches story of a young man who takes on the advice of a King’s adviser he overheard, and becomes wealthy
through his hard work and determination. The young man began with a dead mouse and in the end of the story, he returns the favour to the adviser out of gratitude by offering half his fortune to the adviser. I’ll leave you to read the sutta with the link below. ^_<
Now, I’ve shared with many people those wonderful stories found in the suttas, and many often dismiss them as being more of a fairy tale or legend that having anything in parallel. Well, a while back, I read of a man who had a similar experience of starting off with something small (a red paper clip) and ending with a tidy fortune (I’ll leave it to you to read about it as well). Amazing? Truly. Just as amazing is the young man in the Mouse Merchant Jataka struck his fortune with something insignificant and small (a dead mouse), working his way up through his diligence and diligence.
The next time when you read one of the Jataka stories, remember, as amazing as they are, they can happen in real life, as the Mouse Merchant did, or should we say the Red Paper Clip Man? ^_^
Reference
Full Sutta, http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/j1/j1007.htm
Birth Story part of the sutta, http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/buddhism/bt1_04.htm
The amazing story on news sites and links
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=2171378
http://news.cnet.com/Blogger-asks,-Wanna-trade-a-paper-clip-for-a-house/2100-1025_3-6061438.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_red_paperclip
The blog that started it all
http://oneredpaperclip.blogspot.com/2005_07_01_archive.html