How the Gardener became King
H. (Henry) Parker translation
In a certain city there is a King, it is said. The King told them to plant a garden. After that, he said, “Can anyone (kāṭa) plant a garden?”
One man said, “I can.” Every day the King gave the things the man wanted. The man, cutting channels and fixing the fence, began to plant the garden; he set various kinds [of plants] in the garden. After that, the King went to look at the garden; he saw that there were various kinds of sugar-cane, sweet oranges, mandarin oranges, in the garden. The King said to the gardener that he must look well after the garden.
In that way, after not many days, the King said to the gardener, “Take bows and arrows; should thieves come, shoot them.” Thereupon, by the authority of the King, he was thinking of shooting should they come in from outside.
Not many days after that, the King said to the Adikārama (Minister), “Let us go to the garden [secretly] to look into the examination [of it made] by the gardener.”
Then the Adikārama said, “The order made by Your Honour is [that he is] to shoot thieves. It is not good for us to go.”
The King said, “That man by this time is asleep.”
Afterwards the King and the Adikārama, after the foolish King had taken off the royal ornaments, that very night, taking the disguise of thieves, went to the garden. Having gone, they began to pluck oranges.
Then the gardener awoke. The man, taking his bow, and having come, shot at the King; when he shot him (widapuhāma) the King died.
After that, the Adikārama said to the gardener, “Come, and go to the palace.”
When he asked, the Adikārama said, “All persons stay in the travellers’ shed.”
After that, the Adikārama from that day made obeisance to the King.
Well then, the King remained exercising the sovereignty quite virtuously (hondinma), without injustice.
North-western Province.
In The Orientalist, vol. ii, p. 55, a similar story is given, as related to Mr. K. J. Pohath by a Buddhist monk. According to it, the King visited the garden alone, pretending to steal Kaekiri fruits, and was shot by the gardener. When he was dead the gardener reported the matter to the Adikār, who got the King buried secretly, and proclaimed the gardener King. Some poor people whose lands the Adikār had seized complained to the new King, who held an enquiry, and gave judgment in their favour, remarking, “Adikār, even though it should so happen that I might be obliged to go back to the Kaekiri garden, I cannot say that the lands in dispute belong to you.”