Being Mindful Stories

Story · Ajahn Brahm

The schoolboy who stopped skipping the bus fare

As told by Ajahn Brahm in Seeing the goodness in the world | Ajahn Brahm | 28-11-2014

1 min read

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

when I was a a young uh school boy now my parents were very poor so I didn't have much money and I had to go on a bus every morning to school and a bus coming back again and I thought that if the buzz conductor never asked for your fair I didn't need to pay it and that was an extra source of income for me and but there came a time when I was about 13 or 14 I felt very bad about that you know something inside of me said that was wrong and it was like this intuitive feeling of what was right and wrong no one was telling me all my friends were doing the same but then I thought no that know somebody's got to pay this bus driver's uh salary someone's got to pay for the petrol

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 18:50 (to 19:42)

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

As a poor schoolboy, Ajahn Brahm dodged bus fares like his friends, until his conscience said someone has to pay the driver. From then on he paid even when not asked, which made conductors smile. Years later he returned fifty dollars of wood a hardware store forgot to charge. Honesty never really costs you.

In brief (our summary)

Poor schoolboy skips bus fares for pocket money until about 13–14; conscience says someone must pay the driver's salary and the petrol — he stops cheating.

Teaching point

Sometimes the precepts arrive as an unpaid fare.

When this story may help

  • petty theft
  • growing up

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in Seeing the goodness in the world | Ajahn Brahm | 28-11-2014 · 2014-11-30 · ▶ watch from 18:50 to 19:42 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

Caption notes: YouTube auto-captions: unpunctuated, words left exactly as captioned. 'buzz conductor'/'fair' = bus conductor / fare.

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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