Prevod

Long ago, there was a low-ranking samurai in the service of a certain gentleman. Having nothing much to do, he followed the example of others and twice completed a thousand pilgrimages to Kiyomizu Temple. Not long afterward, he was playing sugoroku with another samurai of much the same standing in his master’s household when he lost heavily. He had nothing with which to pay, and the winner pressed him so hard that, at his wits’ end, he said, “I have nothing to give you. The only thing I have laid up is the merit of two thousand visits to Kiyomizu. I will give you that.” Those listening nearby thought he was trying to cheat his opponent and laughed at his foolishness. But the samurai who had won said, “An excellent offer. If you will give it to me, I will take it. But I will not accept it just like that. Observe three days of purification, then declare the matter before the deity and write out a deed transferring the merit to me. Only then will I accept it.” “Very well,” the loser agreed, and from that day they abstained from impure foods. On the third day, the winner said, “Now, let us go to Kiyomizu.” Delighted, the loser thought with amusement, “What a fool I have found!” and accompanied him to the temple. There he wrote the deed as requested, summoned his priest before the sacred image, and had him explain the matter. “I have staked the merit of my two thousand visits on a game of sugoroku and lost it to this man,” he wrote, and handed over the document. The winner received it joyfully, bowed low in worship, and departed. Not long afterward, the samurai who had lost was arrested over a matter he had never foreseen and thrown into prison. The samurai who had received the merit, meanwhile, unexpectedly found a wife with influential connections, became very wealthy, attained office, and lived in comfort. People said, “Though what he received was something the eye cannot see, he accepted it with a sincere heart, and the Buddha must have looked on him with compassion.”