In ancient times, there were huge chinteys at the entrance to the Shwe Zigong Pagoda in Pagan. One day, a rumor spread around the city with the speed of lightning: when the eyes of the Chhinteis turn red, a grave disaster will befall the country. Ignorant townspeople blindly believed the alarming rumors, and with the onset of dawn, everyone rushed to the fatal place in order to be the first to see the terrible omen and avoid the catastrophe as reliably as possible.
[Chhintei means “lion” in Burmese. The figure of a chintey - a lion with wings on its back - is installed at the entrance to the pagoda.]
Wherever you go, you hear only one thing: “chhintei and chintey, chintey and chintey.” The people lived in constant fear, and it was impossible to free them from this obsession. And not far from the Shwe-zigoun pagoda there was a monastery, and one monk lived in it. One day that monk decided to play a joke on his superstitious fellow citizens. He prepared red paint, made his way to the pagoda at midnight and painted the eyes of the chinteys.
As soon as dawn broke, one townsman headed to the monastery with alms. Having caught up with the figures of the Chhintei, he looked at them out of habit and was horrified to discover that their eyes had become red. Throwing away the alms, he ran headlong back, screaming at the top of his lungs:
- Guard! Chhintei's eyes turned red!!! Like a disturbed beehive, the city began to move. The confused inhabitants grabbed the first things that came to hand and tried to leave its borders as quickly as possible. The monk saw what his idea led to, got scared and began to reason with them:
- Stop! Nothing bad will happen! I painted the chintey's eyes!!!
But no one heeded his words. The monk tried in vain to restrain the maddened crowd.
He stood in the way of the fleeing people, but the people did not see or hear anything, and in the confusion they trampled the unlucky joker to death.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru