ལས་བརྒྱ་ཐམ་པ་པ 11.19

11.19

adoptive father died, the child thought, ‘Now that Father has died, I will take over his business.’ So he loaded up his wares and traveled abroad with some merchants until they eventually came to the place where his mother was. When they arrived in the city, they laid down their wares and set up camp not far from the sex worker’s house.

“The woman asked the arriving merchants, ‘Do any of you know a merchant’s son from such-and-such a place?’

“They replied, ‘There is one merchant captain named Bhūta whose father recently passed away.’

“A little later she asked his companions and they pointed him out saying, ‘That’s the one they call Bhūta.’

“ ‘Why did his father name him Bhūta?’ the woman asked.

“ ‘The householder had a dog named Bhūta who carried the child in from the road and gave it to him,’ the young men said to her. ‘That’s why his name is Bhūta too.’

“Suddenly the woman thought, ‘That’s my child!’ She went to the young man, told him the whole story, and concluded, saying, ‘And that’s how it is that you’re my child, and I am your mother.’ When he heard all this the young man paid the sex worker to release his mother and brought her into his own home.

“Meanwhile, the young man’s birth father had also completed his sea voyage and returned to his parents’ house. He embraced his father and mother, put his things inside, and then went to his home, where his wife was nowhere to be found. He questioned his parents. Referring to his wife, whose father’s name was Vāṣpa, he said, ‘Father and Mother, Vāṣpa’s daughter isn’t here. Where has she gone?’

“ ‘That girl had no respect for you,’ they replied. ‘She committed a crime, so we threw her out of the house and drove her away.’

“The young man fumed, ‘That was my child in her womb!