Ja 125 The Story about the Deceitful Secretary Kaṭāhaka
(Kaṭāhakajātaka)
In the present a monk lies about his family, fortune and fame, until he is discovered. The Buddha tells a story of a past life, in which the same person had cheated his master’s friends and married into the family, putting on airs and graces, until his master taught his wife a verse to repeat to him (full story).
1. Bahum-pi so vikattheyya, aññaṁ janapadaṁ gato,
Anvāgantvāna dūseyya: bhuñja bhoge Kaṭāhakā ti.
Should he, having gone to another country, boast excessively, returning back he would spoil it: enjoy your wealth Kaṭāhaka.
In this connection, should he, having gone to another country, boast excessively, he who, from the place where he himself was born has gone to another country, to where no one knows his birth, and should boast excessively, speaking a word of disparagement, speaking a word of deception.
Returning back he would spoil it, having gone back as far as his master’s place, doing his servant’s duties, being hit with a whip, he is freed from having his back skinned, from branding.
If you behave badly, coming on occasion near another, the master, returning back would spoil it, returning to this house, by a severe beating with a whip, and with branding, and by exposure of his birth, he would spoil it, he would destroy it.
Therefore, abandoning this bad behaviour, enjoy your wealth Kaṭāhaka, do not later, after having had his subservience revealed, have remorse. Here, this is the merchant’s intention.