Mr. LAZY - a Buddhist folk story


Mr. Lazy went to see a renounced astrologer to see what lied ahead of his life. After examining his horoscope, the astrologer told him, "Congratulations, you will become a millionaire at 40 years old and will live to a long life of 95 years old." Mr. Lazy was so pleased that he returned home dancing merrily on the way. "Hurrah, I will become a millionaire at 40 years old," he thought, 'I don't have to work hard". From then on, even though he was very poor, he just dreamed of being rich and did not bother finding work. Finally, he became so poor that he died of hunger at age 39.
After his death, he went to see King Yama (Lord of Death in Buddhism), and filed a complaint against the astrologer. King Yama looked at his Record of Karma and said, "This is very strange, according to my calculations, you do not have to die at 39 years old. In fact, I have examined your Karma and found that you really should get rich at 40 and thereafter will live to 95 years old." King Yama then ordered two of his Officers to investigate the case.
Several days later, the two Officers came back with the following report:
The Heavenly Emperor had decided to give Mr. Lazy one million dollars, so he asked the God of Wisdom to carry out the task. The God of Wisdom went down to earth and looked for Mr. Lazy in all the graduation lists of all the schools, colleges and universities, in the hope that he can arrange to pay him the money in the form of a big salary as a very senior civil servant. But, Mr. Lazy was not in any of the graduation lists, nor as a candidate for the civil service examinations. The God of Wisdom thought: "Mr. Lazy is nowhere to be seen in the civil service examiantions, may be he is in the military services. Let me asked the God of War to help him out."
The God of War took the money and started looking for Mr. Lazy in all the Military Services, including the Army and the Police. He could not locate Mr. Lazy anywhere in the rank and file either. Unable to help Mr. Lazy to get a big military victory and a big award, he ask the God of Wealth for assistance.
The God of Wealth, responsible for commercial prosperity, went down to the business world to look for Mr. Lazy. He went through all the trading places but, again, Mr. Lazy was no where to be seen. Unable to give Mr. Lazy the money in the form of a big profit, he turned it over to the God of Land for help.
Finally, the God of Land located Mr. Lazy in his home and he devised a scheme to hand the money over. He left the money in the backyard, and then tried to get Mr. Lazy to do some gardening and therefore find the money. But, Mr. Lazy was too lazy even to clean up his own backyard, and so the money was still remained there untouched.
Upon reading the report, King Yama told Mr. Lazy: "Sorry, the Heavenly Emperor really did want to give you a million dollars during your life time. But you did not make any effort to get it. Case dismissed!"