Stories about greed
3 Buddhist wisdom stories about greed from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- A Coke for the lottery numbersStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Resting alone on tudong in the mountains of north-east Thailand, Ajahn Brahm is spotted by a middle-aged woman who disappears and returns ten minutes later to set before him a…
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once when I was just on this what they call on tudong living by yourself walking through the mountains alone carrying everything you owned on your back and I just was sitting down resting know for um a few minutes and as I was just sitting down there this woman saw me and when she saw me. She disappeared and came back about 10 minutes later. Now, she was a middle-aged woman. And she came and she put in front of me a bottle of Coca-Cola, a piece of paper, and a pencil. What was it? That's what they wanted. She thought I didn't understand the Isan language was place I was staying the northeastern language so she thought I would figure it out CocaCola piece of paper pencil and when I told her in now I could speak that language I said no I don't I'm not going to give you any lottery number she took the Coca-Cola away
- He won the Chiang Mai lottery — and went madStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: In Chiang Mai illegal number-lotteries run by gangs: a man sells his house, wins a fortune, then the gangs offer only a couple of million of the ten owed. He cannot sue; they…
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Chiang Mai in north of Thailand they have illegal notaries there I think it's the last two or three numbers and they bet on it and he won it and a lot of money I think he actually sold his house and put a fortune on this lottery number and because it was run by the gangs in Chiang Mai they said no we're not going to pay you the full amount you know just a couple of million is enough he said no no it's 10 million I said a couple of million and they said no we're only going to give you two million he said no I demand 10 million he couldn't take them to court because his illegal Lottery and they told him listen mate a bullet only cost about ten dollars but he still wouldn't accept it and he went crazy they're committed to a mental institution simply because he won and couldn't accept a lesser payment greed sent him mad
- The monkey who wouldn't let go of the bananaStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Hunters hollow out a coconut, cut a hole just big enough for a monkey's hand, tie it to a tree and put a banana inside. The monkey grabs the banana but can't pull out its fist;…
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There is this old Buddhist story and it is a great one which the Buddha told this about how stupid attachments are and how it kills people. It's an old story about how people used to catch monkeys. It is very easy to catch a monkey. All they did was to get a coconut from the forest, hollow it out, you can drink the juice and have the coconut white stuff and then make a little hole in the coconut and they chain or tie the coconut to a tree. And all they did was put a banana inside the coconut and just go home. Of course the monkeys love bananas. So the next day the monkey would find the banana and put his hand in the coconut but the hole is big enough to put a hand in but not big enough to take a hand with the banana in out. So the monkey can't take the banana out. He can take his hand out anytime he wants but not the hand with the banana it's just too big. And the hunter comes along and the monkey sees a hunter and tries even more frantically to get the banana out but he can't and the hunter gets even closer, and the monkey tries everything to get the banana out but he won't that's how the hunter catches the monkey. All the monkey needs to do is to let go the banana, get his hand out and just go but he can't you know why? Because that's my banana. I found that banana, it's mine.