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Story · Ajahn Brahm

The hundred-baht wish list

As told by Ajahn Brahm in What Do You Want? | Ajahn Brahm | 06-05-2011

3 min read

The story — as told by Ajahn Brahm (verbatim captions)

Cos that happened to me many years ago, maybe over thirty years ago in Thailand, I had helped a man with some problems, and he was very grateful, he knew the rules, cos he was a Thai, been around the forest tradition a long time, so he came up to me and asked me, "Is there anything I can get for you? Just for you, not for the temple, one hundred baht." That's thirty-seven years ago, and these days, it's only worth about two or three dollars, but that to me was a lot of money. So you know, my mind went blank, as it often does, maybe I meditate too much, I don't know. But anyway, I couldn't think. And he was getting very impatient, and he had his work to go to. I came up with an idea, I said to him, "Why don't you come tomorrow morning? Tonight I'll think about what I want, and I'll write it down and give it to you tomorrow." He said, "Good idea - I'll be here about the same time tomorrow." So that night, after the evening meeting, chanting and meditation, I went back to my room, I lit a candle, cos there's no electricity - and I got out a old piece of paper and a pen, so I started thinking, "what do I want?" Straight away the pencil broke, so I said, actually - I need, not pencils, pencils are hopeless, I need like a pen. just a simple, biro pen or something. And as for the piece of paper, it's just a scrap piece of paper, I need a little exercise book - you know, nothing fancy, just a little exercise book, and also you know the candle is very, very difficult to write, it's bad for your eyes, just you know, reading or writing by candle light. What I wanted is one of these little oil lamps, little lamps you know, you see maybe on the boats, over here in Australia, just a little oil lamp, and a bit of kerosene, and talking about lights, my flash light was really terrible, and I needed a new flash light, and some batteries - and I put all of those things down. I suddenly realised one hundred baht, was not enough. And you know, it was so difficult to actually take any of those things off the list now, Cos now I thought about it, I don't know how I survived without them. I mean how can you survive, you know, and actually I needed some new sandals, you know, if I'm going to be walking through those forests, I needed some more new sandals, and actually talking about pieces of paper, I really needed to write to my family, I needed these aerograms. And soon, a thousand bahts was not enough. And every one of those items I put on the list, now was so important to me, I just could not scratch any one off. And that's when I had the insight, I realised what's this thing was doing to me. At that point, I screwed up that piece of paper, and I threw it in the waste bin, this little spittoon we had. And the following day, when that man came, I scolded him, "Don't you ever do that to me ever again. I was such a happy monk, before you gave me one hundred dollars. Or a hundred baht, now I had all these desires."

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 47:15 (to 50:14)

A reflection (in the spirit of Ajahn Brahm's talk)

Offered a hundred baht for anything he wanted, the young monk drew up a list that soon outgrew a thousand, screwed it up, and scolded his kind supporter for spoiling his happiness. Wanting has no finish line, even for retirement funds. Notice when a wish list starts to own you. Contentment costs nothing and is already enough.

In brief (our summary)

A grateful Thai supporter who knows the rules offers the young monk a 'mendicant allowance' of 100 baht for anything he personally wants. His mind goes blank, so he asks for a day to think. That night by candlelight he starts a list: the pencil breaks — he needs a pen; an exercise book; an oil lamp and kerosene; a new torch and batteries; sandals; aerograms to write home. Soon even 1,000 baht isn't enough, and he can't cross anything off. Seeing what wanting is doing to him, he screws up the list, and next morning scolds the man: “I was such a happy monk before you offered me a hundred baht!”

Teaching point

There's no end to wanting material things; contentment is the greatest happiness.

When this story may help

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in What Do You Want? | Ajahn Brahm | 06-05-2011 · 2011-05-08 · ▶ watch from 47:15 to 50:14 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

2 other tellings of this story

Caption notes: Manual (volunteer) captions; occasional misspellings kept as is.

The narrative is Ajahn Brahm's own telling, quoted from the talk captions. The summary and reflection are Being Mindful Stories's editorial notes. Please credit the teacher and link the original talk. Markdown version

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