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Now the chaplain one day had been going to wait upon the king. On the road he saw a chariot; sent to the king by another king, coloured like the young sun. “Whose chariot?” he asked. “Sent for the king,” they said. Then he thought, “I am an old man; if the king were to give me that chariot, how time it would he to ride about in it!” When he came before the king, and stood by after greeting him with the prayer for prosperity, they showed the chariot to the king. “That is a most beautiful car,” said the king; “give it to my teacher.” But the chaplain did not like taking it; no, not though he was begged again and again. Why was this? Because the thought came into his mind—“I, who practise the Kuru righteousness, have coveted another’s goods. Surely this is a flaw in my virtue!” So he told the story to these messengers, adding, “My sons, I am in doubt about the Kuru righteousness; this righteousness does not bless me now; therefore I cannot teach it to you.”
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