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Preached at Jetavana to Anāthapindika and
his five hundred friends, who were followers of other schools. They had gone
with the banker to hear the Buddha preach and became converts. But when the
Buddha left Sāvatthi and went to Rājagaha they reverted to their old faiths,
coming back to the Buddha when he returned to Sāvatthi.
The story of the past is of two merchants who travel with caravans across a
desert. One, beguiled by goblins, throws away his drinking water and is devoured
with all his people and cattle. The other completes his journey safely, not
putting faith in the goblins. The moral is that the followers of false teachers
are led astray. The foolish merchant was Devadatta (J.i.95ff).
This Jātaka will be among the last to be forgotten when the Dhamma disappears
from the world at the end of the Kāliyuga. AA.i.51.

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