To kill a Mosquito.. (Jataka Tale)Once on a time during the reighn of Brahmadatta on the Benares (Varanasi in present day India), the Bodhisattva gained his livelihood as a trader. In these days in a border village in Kashi (another name for Benaras) there dwelt a number of carpenters. And it chanced that one of them, a bald gray-haired man, was planing away at some wood with his head glistening like a copper bowl, when a mosquito settled on his scalp and stung him with its dart like sting.The carpenter said to his son who was seated nearby, Son, theres a mosquito stinging me on the head. Drive it away.Hold still father, said the son. One blow will settle it.(At that very time the Bodhisattva had reached that village in the way of trade, and was sitting in the carpenters shop.)Get rid of it! cried the father.All right, father, answered the son, who was behind the old mans back, and, raising a sharp ax on high with intent to kill only the mosquito, he cleft his fathers head in two. The old man fell dead on the spot.Thought the Bodhisattva, who had been an eye witness of the whole scene, Better than a foolish friend is an enemy with sense. Fear of mens vengeance will deter him from killing a man. And he recited these lines:Senseless friends are worse than foes with sense;Witness the son that sought to slay the gnat,But cleft, poor fool, his fathers skull in two.So saying, the Bodhisattva rose up and departed, passing away in after days to fare according to his deserts. And as for the carpenter, his body was cremated by his kinsfolk.Translated by E.B. Cowell (1895). Edited by Elan (2012)