# “Put your hand under here”

- Teacher: Ajahn Brahm
- Type: Story
- URL: https://beingmindfulstories.com/stories/brahm-ghost-voice-cash-tin
- Themes: ghosts, luck, kindness
- Life situations: starting out financially, buying a first home

## Synopsis (editorial summary)

A young builder from a poor family, renovating an old Perth house on stumps, hears a voice — with no one around — telling him to put his hand under the stumps just there. He finds an old tin stuffed with cash a former owner had hidden, presumably from the taxman; it became the deposit on the couple's first house.

## The story, as told by Ajahn Brahm (verbatim captions)

There's a couple of people who were really really strong supporters of this temple. They still are. I won't say who they are, but they were just a young couple, you know, just uh, you know, from poor families. And he was a bit of a builder. And he told me the way he got started in life, you know, with his wife, the way he got the money to actually put a deposit down for his first house was when he was doing some renovating in an old house somewhere here in Perth. Remember those old houses? You can still see them, you know, in North Perth in maybe sort of Vic Park, you know, on little stumps and the houses on top. As he was walking past alone, he heard very clearly someone say to him, "Put your hand under the under the um the stumps right here." And there was no one around. So he checked himself. Did I hear that? And it said it again. Put your hand under here. And he put the hand under the house where he heard the voice. And there he found an old tin. You know those old tins, you know, like they used to have tobacco tins or or biscuit tins. An old tin. And he drew it out and in there was full of cash. The previous owner of that house had been hiding his money there to know avoid paying taxes or whatever, but that was where he was stashing his cash. He died, but he wanted this guy to have a start in life. He was a very good man and he took that out and that's where he got the start in life.

## Teaching point

Most 'ghosts' are kind; there is more than one life.

## Reflection (in the spirit of Ajahn Brahm's talk)

Renovating an old Perth house, a young builder heard a voice tell him to reach under the stumps. He found a tin of hidden cash that became the deposit on his first home. Ajahn Brahm shares it with a wink. If there is more than one life, death is separation, not the end. That idea softens grief.

## Source

- [One Life, Many Lives | by Ajahn Brahm | 13-01-2012](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeKFsGSEi94) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 11:52 to 13:46: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeKFsGSEi94&t=712s

Other tellings of this story:

- [Albany Dhamma Talk & Meditation | Ajahn Brahm | 20 September 2020](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xt8fuCLt3YM) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 1:35:20 to 1:35:53: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xt8fuCLt3YM&t=5720s
- [New Year's Eve (Dhamma Talk, Meditation & Chanting) | Ajahn Brahm | 31 December 2020](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpsBHggU_BY) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 3:31 to 7:19: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpsBHggU_BY&t=211s