Once upon a time, in Edo (the present Tokyo), there lived a poor man named Zengoro in Fukui-cho in Asakusa. All his life, he had believed piously in Daikokuten (one of the seven Japanese gods), but he could not make any money. When the year was nearing its close, Zengoro became very worried. He decided to throw off his real self, enter into the neighbourhood and steal the money from the house of a rich man. He thought that with that money he could spend at least that New Year comfortably. He told his wife about the idea. But she was against it and said, “It is better to die than to steal.” Still, he could not dismiss the idea. At night, when his wife was sleeping, he went out. He stood by the fence of the rich man’s house. Carefully, he looked in. He stretched his hand onto the board fence, and tried to climb over.
The Revelation
There was a lot of snow around so Zengoro’s feet slipped. He fell and fainted outside. Then as if in a dream he saw the form of Daikokuten appear before him, surrounded by a bright light and with a heap of gold and silver at his feet. Upset, Zengoro said, “I have worshipped you every day for all this time; why have you never given even a little of this great heap of gold which you have?” Daikokuten replied, “I cannot give you this treasure. It is not mine. It belongs to someone else. The only thing that you can do is to ask and borrow from him.” “Where is the owner, then?” Zengoro asked. “The beggar who is sleeping there at the bridge straight ahead.”
The Beggar’s Money
Zengoro, who was true at heart and a strong believer of Daikokuten, set out in the direction Daikokuten had said. He went straight towards the bridge to see. A dirty beggar was soundly sleeping in the cold with only a straw mat over him. Zengoro went closer and shook him until he awakened. Then, he told the beggar everything that had happened. “I will give you a task if you only let me have three hundred ryo,” he said. “But how can I do such a thing?” the baffled beggar answered. “It was truly a revelation from Daikokuten,” insisted Zengoro. He tried to persuade the beggar some way or the other. Zengoro took the beggar home with him and drew up the contract of loan for three hundred ryo and gave it to him. In addition, they agreed to live on terms as relatives from that time.
The Beggar Becomes Rich
Zengoro then told the beggar that after having made this contract they would be able to find the money. “Let us start looking at my house first,” Zengoro said. With the help of his wife, he lifted up the boards in the floor. After looking around in every corner, they found a place which seemed a little higher than the rest in a corner under the porch. They dug and found exactly three hundred ryo from under the dirt there. Using this as an investment, they worked for a living and in a little time their fortune improved. As per the contract, Zengoro brought the beggar to his house and shared the money with him suitably. He set him up in a home and both the families prospered. Since Zengoro and his wife had no children, they adopted a son from the beggar’s family and handed their fortune over to him. Hence, it was truly as Daikokuten had revealed. All the fortune came into the possession of the beggar’s family.
