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154
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THE QUESTIONS AND PUZZLES
IV, 8, 31.
Certainly not, Sir.'
So again is it that though a good deed can be shared, an evil one cannot.'
31. 'But, venerable Nâgasena, why is that? Convince me of this by a reason. I am not blind, or unobservant. I shall understand when I have heard.'
Vice, O king, is a mean thing, virtue is great and grand. By its meanness vice affects only the doer, but virtue by its grandeur overspreads the whole world of gods and men.'
Show me this by a metaphor.' Were a tiny drop of water to fall on the ground, O king, would it flow on over ten leagues or twelve ?'
Certainly not. It would only have effect on that very spot of ground on which it fell.'
But why so? Because of its minuteness.' * Just so, O king, is vice minute. And by reason of its littleness it affects the doer only, and cannot possibly be shared. But if a mighty rain cloud were to pour out rain satisfying the surface of the earth, would that water spread round about?
Certainly, Sir. That thunderstorm would fill up the depressions in the ground and the pools and ponds, and the gullies and crevices and chasms, and the lakes and reservoirs and wells and lotus-tanks, and the water would spread abroad for ten leagues or for twelve 3.'
Pariyâdiyati. See the note above at IV, 8, 23. : A similar metaphor is used below, IV, 8, 55 (p. 311 of the Pali).
* This long list is made up of the two given above at pp. 35,
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