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One evening a thief visited Ryōkan 's hut at the base of the mountain only to discover there was nothing to steal
March 28th, 2013
illustration

illustration (attribution, if any possible, is at the end of the article)

One evening a thief visited Ryōkan 's hut at the base of the mountain only to discover there was nothing to steal.
Ryōkan returned and caught him. "You have come a long way to visit me," he told the prowler, "and you should not return empty-handed. Please take my clothes as a gift." The thief was bewildered. He took the clothes and slunk away.
Ryōkan sat naked, watching the moon. "Poor fellow," he mused, "I wish I could have given him this beautiful moon."

This story may be an interpretation of an account mentioned by Ryōkan in a  #haiku :

盗人に
取り残されし
窓の月

The thief
Left it behind—
The moon at the window.


#Buddhism   #Zen   #buddhistcircle  
[excerpt from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryōkan]
(photo: © +Randen Pedersonhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/chefranden/ )