Hiri Jātaka

The Buddha told this story at Jetavana, concerning a rich merchant who lived in a border province. This merchant was a friend and business correspondent of the lay disciple Anāthapiṇḍika, though the two had never met. The collection says that both the introductory story and the story of the past are related in full in No. 90, the Akataññu Jātaka, and that No. 363, the Hiri Jātaka, gives a shorter version with its own verses. The details below come from that fuller account, and the ending comes from No. 363.

At one time the border merchant loaded five hundred carts with local produce. He told his men to go to the great merchant Anāthapiṇḍika at Sāvatthī and barter the goods for their value. They were to bring back whatever Anāthapiṇḍika gave in exchange. Anāthapiṇḍika welcomed the men, lodged them, and gave them money for their needs. He asked kindly after their master's health and bartered their goods fairly. The men returned home and told the border merchant what had happened.

Some time later, Anāthapiṇḍika sent five hundred carts of merchandise to the same district. His people went with a present in hand to call on the border merchant. "Where do you come from?" he asked. "From Sāvatthī, from your correspondent Anāthapiṇḍika," they replied. The border merchant answered with a sneer: "Anyone can call himself Anāthapiṇḍika." He took their present and told them to go away. He gave them neither lodging nor any gift in return. They bartered their goods for themselves and returned to Sāvatthī with the story of their reception.

By chance the border merchant then sent another caravan of five hundred carts to Sāvatthī. His people came with a present in hand to wait upon Anāthapiṇḍika. When Anāthapiṇḍika's people saw them, they said they would arrange lodging, food, and money. They took the strangers outside the city and told them to unyoke their carts at a suitable spot, saying that rice and a gift would come from Anāthapiṇḍika's house.

About the middle watch of the night, Anāthapiṇḍika's people gathered a band of servants and slaves and plundered the caravan. They took every garment the visitors had, drove away their oxen, and removed the wheels from the carts. The terrified strangers fled without so much as a shirt among them and somehow reached their home on the border. Anāthapiṇḍika's people then told him the whole story. He said that this was a fine story to offer the Master that day, and he went and told it to the Buddha. The text does not present this as a model of conduct. It is a story about how a refusal of hospitality can come back to its sender.

The Buddha said that this was not the first time the border merchant had behaved this way. At Anāthapiṇḍika's request, he told of a past life. In the days of King Brahmadatta of Benares, the Bodhisatta was a very wealthy merchant in that city. He too had a border correspondent whom he had never seen, and everything happened as before. When his people told him what they had done, the Bodhisatta said that their trouble was the result of the ingratitude with which they had treated others. He added that those who failed to do what they ought for the strangers who came to them find no one ready to do them a good turn.

Then he spoke verses about friendship. The first describes a false friend who plays the part of a humble servant while loathing you in his heart, poor in good deeds and rich only in words. The second asks that we be true in deed to every promise and refuse to promise what we cannot do, because wise people look askance at empty braggarts. It continues that a true friend does not suspect a quarrel without cause or watch for flaws. He rests trustfully on his friend as a child rests on its mother's breast, and no stranger's word separates him from his friend. The final lines turn to the person who draws the yoke of human friendship well and tastes the sweetness of calm, who finds escape from the bonds of sin and sorrow.

Thus, the account says, the Great Being, disgusted at having come into contact with evil associates, brought his teaching to a climax by the power of solitude and led people toward Nirvana. His lesson ended, the Buddha identified the Birth: "At that time I myself was the merchant of Benares." He added that the border merchant of that day was the same border merchant as in the present story.

The Hiri Jātaka is No. 363 of the Jātaka collection, and its ideas about friendship are demanding. The story takes its name from hiri, a feeling of conscience or inner shame that holds a person back from wrongdoing. The border merchant showed none. He accepted generous hospitality, refused to give it back, and sent away honest messengers with a sneer. The verses describe a friend not by what he says, but by whether his deeds match his promises. A good friend is one in whom trust can rest as a child rests on its mother. The story also warns anyone who treats a stranger as unworthy of courtesy. Such coldness is rarely forgotten, and it can leave a person without help when they need it most.