Revisited xxx

[Stephanie]

“Once he [Siddhartha] traveled to a village to buy up a large rice crop. But when he arrived the rice had already been

sold to another dealer.

Nevertheless, Siddhartha remained a number of days in that village, hosted the farmers, gave their children

copper coins, joined in a wedding celebration, and came back from the journey quite content.

Kamaswami took him to task for not coming back immediately, for wasting time and money. Siddhartha responded:

‘Give up your scolding, my friend! Nothing has ever been achieved by scolding. If we have taken a loss, then let me

stand the loss. I am very content with this trip. I got to know a lot of people, I made friends with a brahmin,

I had children sitting on my lap, farmers showed me their fields, no one treated me like a merchant.’

‘That’s all quite lovely,’ exclaimed Kamaswami indignantly, ‘but you are in fact a merchant, or so I thought. Or was that

just a pleasure trip you took?’ ‘Definitely,’ laughed Siddhartha, “I definitely took that trip for pleasure.

Why else? I got to know people and places, I enjoyed hospitality and trust, I found friendship. You see, my friend,

if I had been Kamaswami, as soon as I saw that my business deal was foiled, I would have turned around instantly

and come back home totally upset. The time and money would in fact have been lost. But in my case I had a

good few days, learned things, had a good time, and harmed neither myself nor anyone else through anger or haste.

And if I ever go back there, perhaps to buy a future crop – or for whatever purpose – I will be warmly and kindly

received by friendly people, and I will congratulate myself for not having been abrupt or shown irritation the last time.

So let well enough alone, my friend, and do not harm yourself by scolding me.’”