Now the man had a son, a lad of seven years, but wise and clever. The lad overheard what his mother said, "My mother, "thought he, "is a wicked woman, and is trying to persuade father to murder his father. I will prevent my father from doing this murder." He ran quickly, and lay down beside his grandsire. Vasitthaka, at the time suggested by the wife, prepared the cart. "Come, father, let us get that debt!" said he, and placed his father in the cart. But the boy got in first of all. [46] Vasitthaka could not prevent him, so he took him to the cemetery with them. Then, placing his father and his son together in a place apart, with the cart, he got down, took spade and basket, and in a spot where he was hidden from them began to dig a square hole. The boy got down, and followed him, and as though ignorant what was afoot, opened a conversation by repeating the first stanza:

"No bulbs are here, no herbs for cooking meet,
No catmint, nor no other plant to eat.
Then father, why this pit, if need be none,
Delve in Death's acre mid the woods alone?"

Then his father answered by repeating the second stanza:

"Thy grandsire, son, is very weak and old,
Opprest by pain from ailments manifold:
Him will I bury in a pit to-day;
In such a life I could not wish him stay."

Hearing this, the boy answered by repeating a half-stanza:

"Thou hast done sinfully in wishing this,
And for the deed, a cruel deed it is."

With these words, he caught the spade from his father's hands, and at no great distance began to dig another pit.

[47] His father approaching asked why he dug that pit; to whom he made reply by finishing the third stanza:

"I too, when thou art aged, father mine,
Will treat my father as thou treatest thine;
Following the custom of the family
Deep in a pit I too will bury thee."

To this the father replied by repeating the fourth stanza:

"What a harsh saying for a boy to say,
And to upbraid a father in this way!
To think that my own son should rail at me,
And to his truest friend unkind should be!"

When the father had thus spoken, the wise lad recited three stanzas, one by way of answer, and two as an holy hymn:

"I am not harsh, my father, nor unkind,
Nay, I regard thee with a friendly mind:
But this thou dost, this act of sin, thy son
Will have no strength to undo again, once done.

"Whoso, Vasittha, hurts with ill intent
His mother or his father, innocent,
He, when the body is dissolved, shall be
In hell for his next life undoubtedly.

"Whoso with meat and drink, Vasittha, shall
His mother or his father feed withal,
[48] He, when the body is dissolved, shall be
In heaven for his next life undoubtedly."