objections, I will tell you a story. Listen."


There is a city called Ujjain, whose people delight in noble
happiness, and feel no longing for heaven. In that city there is real
darkness at night, real intelligence in poetry, real madness in
elephants, real coolness in pearls, sandal, and moonlight.

There lived a king named Moonshine. He had as counsellor a
famous Brahman named Heaven-lord, rich in money, rich in piety,
rich in learning. And the counsellor had a son named
Moon-lord.

This son went one day to a great resort of gamblers to play. There
the dice, beautiful as the eyes of gazelles, were being thrown
constantly. And Calamity seemed to be looking on, thinking:
"Whom shall I embrace?" And the loud shouts of angry gamblers
seemed to suggest the question: "Who is there that would not be
fleeced here, were he the god of wealth himself?"

This hall the youth entered, and played with dice. He staked his
clothes and everything else, and the gamblers won it all. Then he
wagered money he did not have, and lost that. And when they
asked him to pay, he could not. So the gambling-master caught
him and beat him with clubs.

When he was bruised all over by the clubs, the Brahman youth
became motionless like a stone, and pretended to be dead, and
waited. After he had lain thus for two or three days, the heartless
gambling-master said to the gamblers: "He lies like a stone. Take