There was a poor shoemaker in Vaishali by the name of Sudas. Near his house was a pond. One day, he saw a beautiful lotus flower blooming in it. He was surprised to see it because it was not the season for lotuses. He plucked the flower, hoping to sell it for a good price. He was walking with the flower in his hand when a seth—the richest man in the city—passed by. The seth noticed the beautiful flower and asked him, ‘How much will you sell it for?’ The poor shoemaker said, ‘I don’t know how much this flower is worth. Give me whatever you want.’ The seth said, ‘Gautam Buddha is visiting our city. He is staying in the mango orchard outside the city. In fact, I was on my way to see him. I will offer this out-of-season lotus flower at his feet. This will make him happy. I will give you a hundred gold coins for it.’ Sudas could not believe his luck. He had never seen a hundred gold coins in his life.
Before Sudas could say anything, the King of Vaishali arrived there. He said, ‘Wait! Don’t sell it to the seth. I will give you four times whatever he is giving you.’ A surprised Sudas asked the king, ‘Why are you so interested in the flower?’ The king said, ‘I want to offer it to Gautam Buddha.’ But the seth was not so easily deterred. After all, he had more money than the king. He offered four times what the king was offering. This way, they both went on offering four times the other, and poor Sudas, who was not used to handling large sums of money, soon lost track of how much they were offering. Sudas suddenly held up his hand, ‘Wait! I am not going to sell this flower. You are both willing to give so much money for this flower because you want to gift it to Gautam Buddha. I don’t know him, but if he is such a great man, then I want to offer the flower to him myself.’
Sudas went to the mango orchard and placed the lotus at Gautam Buddha’s feet. The seth and the king were already seated there and told the Buddha of Sudas’s refusal to sell the lotus. Buddha said, ‘You should have sold the lotus. They were offering you so much money. I cannot give you anything.’ Sudas said with tears in his eyes, ‘If you hold the lotus in your hand, my flower and I will be remembered for centuries, as long as you are remembered.’
The fact that you are reading this story after 2,500 years shows that Sudas was right!
