Once upon a time, a big disaster happened in Okinawa: a terrible typhoon struck, followed by a great drought. Nothing was born on the field. Every day death began to come for people.
At that time, there lived an old man on the island. He was very old. It was hard for the old man to see someone else’s grief, so he walked around the village, helping people in any way he could: with whom he would share a handful of rice, to whom he would give his clothes.
And hunger is getting closer and closer: people began to steal each other’s last livestock, and then kill cats, frogs and snakes.
One evening an old man was walking through the forest. “What to do next? How can we save people from death?” he thinks. He hears an owl hooting in the wilderness.
“It’s not good for the owl to screech here,” muttered the old man. He raised his head and listened. “No way, this is new news from the dead kingdom.” Everywhere, everywhere there is death! Get lost! Get lost!
The old man went further. It had become quite dark. Suddenly he sees a stranger coming towards him along a mountain path. He carries a coffin on his shoulder and carries a hoe in his hand. The old man greeted him and said:
- I am very, venerable, I sympathize with your grief! Tell me, who died in your house?
The stranger stopped, sighed heavily, and then said:
- Thank you, grandfather, for your kind words. My father died, but I don’t have the money to arrange a funeral. So I decided to go into the forest and bury my father there. I’m ashamed of people, that’s why I went at night.
The stranger said so and hid his face even deeper in his black clothes.
“You can’t handle it alone,” the old man responded, “let me help you!”
They moved on together.
“Let’s bury your father in the grove,” the old man suggested.
“Well,” the stranger agreed, “the place here is good, quiet, and the view from here is beautiful.”
They began to take turns digging the ground.
“Grandfather,” the stranger suddenly says, “I dropped the incense sticks in the dark.” It's just two steps away. Pray for my father for now, and I’ll be back in a moment.
“Okay,” the old man agreed, “I’ll pray for now, and you go.”
The stranger left and disappeared. The old man was waiting for him, waiting. The morning has already come, but the stranger is still not there.
“How can you trust the first person you meet with such a thing?” the old man wondered. “Apparently, this son will not come back.” I should at least see for whom I prayed to Buddha all night.
The old man approached the coffin, opened the lid, and there... piles of gold coins! Then the old man realized that he was not an ordinary person, but a deity himself. So it rewarded the old man for his kindness.
The old man returned to the village and divided the gold equally among everyone. People became rich - they no longer needed to steal their neighbors’ livestock or kill animals.
Often later this story was told in the village and that coffin was always respectfully called “the savior from death.”
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru