Episode Details

The Gatiloke turns to the wise — and to what a wise man is worth. A scholar of Lanka comes to break the sages of Ayutthaya in a duel of riddles, and Dhananjaya answers him with a circle of arms, a fist and five fingers — and afterwards answers a minister who comes fishing for the meaning with a riddle of fish-traps and dried fish. A prince steals into his father's palace with a knife at his waist, and three companies of the king's watch give three judgements: death for all, death for two, or no judgement at all until the king has heard. And a monk asks a king's clerk for the royal timber, and the clerk — who never stops to ask — gives away the king's stores, and gives the Buddha's monks their rule against taking what is not given.

Chapters: 00:04 — The Sage Dhananjaya and the Scholars of Lanka 10:04 — King Bimbisara's Ministers and Prince Ajatasattu 15:05 — The Elder Dhaniya and the Chief Accountant

From the Gatiloke by Suttantaprija Ind (1859–1924), Cambodia's treasury of Khmer folk tales, first published in parts in Phnom Penh in 1914–1921 — public domain, and told here in a fresh in-house English rendering made from the Khmer text, in the book's own order. One question-chapter near the collection's opening is held back under house rule — its matter is murder itself, and such a tale is not read until it is ruled on; it stands recorded in the collection's written register, in its place. One further tale of the book's second part — the tale of Bhikkhu Sok, the Pnong teacher — is likewise held back under house rule: its matter is a whole lineage put to death, and such a tale is not read until it is ruled on; it stands recorded in the register, in its place.

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