head gardener, hearing the drum, said to himself: "Even though it is a holiday, the garden must be watered. Accordingly, I will ask the Monkeys to water the garden for me, so that I can be off to enjoy myself, and keep holiday with the rest." So he called to the Monkeys and asked them to water the garden; and when the Monkeys had promised to water all the young trees faithfully, the gardener gave them the water-skins and the wooden watering-pot with which to perform their task. After the gardener had gone, the Monkeys took up the water-skins and the watering-pot and began to water the young trees. But the leader of the Monkeys stopped them: "Wait," said he, "we must be careful not to waste the water. Before you water them you must first pull up each tree and look at the size of the root. Then, you must give plenty of water to those which have long, deep roots, but only a little water to those that have short roots. For when this water is all gone, we shall have hard work to get any more."
"To be sure," said the other Monkeys, "that is what we must do." So they pulled up all the roots, just as their leader had told them to do,—and all the young trees died.
With every intention of doing good, the ignorant and foolish succeed only in doing harm.
(Aramadusaka Jataka, No. 51.)
THE JUDAS TREE
ONCE upon a time there was a King of Benares who had four sons. One day these four sons sent for the King's charioteer and said to him:
"We want to see what a Judas Tree is like; show us one!"
