VII

THE BADGER'S MONEY


It is a common saying among men that to forget favours received is the
part of a bird or a beast: an ungrateful man will be ill spoken of by
all the world. And yet even birds and beasts will show gratitude; so
that a man who does not requite a favour is worse even than dumb brutes.
Is not this a disgrace?

Once upon a time, in a hut at a place called Namékata, in Hitachi, there
lived an old priest famous neither for learning nor wisdom, but bent
only on passing his days in prayer and meditation. He had not even a
child to wait upon him, but prepared his food with his own hands. Night
and morning he recited the prayer "Namu Amida Butsu,"[3] intent upon
that alone. Although the fame of his virtue did not reach far, yet his
neighbours respected and revered him, and often brought him food and
raiment; and when his roof or his walls fell out of repair, they would
mend them for him; so for the things of this world he took no thought.

One very cold night, when he little thought any one was outside, he
heard a voice calling, "Your reverence! your reverence!" So he rose and
went out to see who it was, and there he beheld an old badger standing.
Any ordinary man would have been greatly alarmed at the apparition; but
the priest, being such as he has been described above, showed no sign of
fear, but asked the creature its business. Upon this the badger
respectfully bent its knees and said: