Soft Words

In Takshila in the kingdom of Gandhar, an Enlightened Being, Bodhisatta, was born as a young calf. He was bought by a rich man who treated him with great care and love. He called him Prasanna. The calf grew into a gentle but very powerful bull.
He wanted to express his gratitude to his master for all the care he gave him. So one day he said, “Master, find a merchant who takes pride in the strength of his bulls. Invite his bulls for a competition to pull a hundred loaded carts.”
The rich man liked the idea. He soon found a merchant who owned strong bulls and boasted about them publicly. The rich man challenged him telling him that his bull could pull a hundred loaded carts.
“Impossible!” said the merchant, “No such bull exists in our kingdom.”
“Shall we have a competition, sir?” asked the rich man.

The merchant agreed to a wager of a thousand gold coins. The arena was set and a hundred carts, heavily loaded with gravel and sand, were waiting to be pulled. The rich man harnessed Prasanna to the first cart.
Unfortunately, he had an urge to show off his position just then. And he exhibited it by cracking his whip over Prasanna and shouting, “Come on, you great dummy, move!”
Prasanna was a very dignified and enlightened soul. He was not the one to whom any disrespect should be inflicted. Seeing the rich man’s bad behaviour, he simply refused to move! No coaxing or cajoling worked. The merchant laughed and won the challenge. He counted the gold coins he had won.
The rich man came home defeated and dejected. Miserably, he asked Prasanna, “If you were not going to pull the carts, why did you ask me to offer the challenge?”
Prasanna replied, “Master, you have always been kind to me, so I wished to repay you. But you have never called me a dummy or cracked a whip over my back. Why did you do it today? And in public too?”

The rich man was ashamed of his mistake. After a few days, Prasanna felt sorry for him and suggested that he should challenge the merchant again, this time for two thousand gold coins. The rich man did as Prasanna said.
The merchant was delighted. He thought he would win more gold now! But this time, the rich man spoke gently to Prasanna, “Help me, my son!” And with a mighty heave, Prasanna moved a hundred carts! The merchant was amazed. The rich man got back his money and that possible because of soft words!

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