AVOID PREJUDICE
Question before the story: What does the word “prejudice” mean to you?
THE PALACE DOGS AND THE CITY DOGS
Once a long time ago, the King of Benares had a very fancy chariot pulled by two beautiful
horses who were harnessed to the chariot with very fancy, expensive leather belts and straps.
One evening, the king went out for a chariot ride in his garden, and it got very late before he
returned to the palace. Because it was so late, the man who put the horses back in the stable left
the harnesses outside on the palace grounds. That night it rained, and the fancy leather harnesses
got wet, swelled up and soft, with a strong odor of leather. Very early that morning, before the
sun came up, the palace dogs woke up and smelled the leather. They thought it smelled good.
They followed their noses to where the leather harnesses were on the ground. As you might
know, many dogs like to chew on things, especially leather, which is the skin of an animal. So
the dogs started to chew on the fancy leather harnesses. The enjoyed chewing it so much, that by
the time the sun came up, the harnesses became soggy shreds.
The next morning when the king walked outside, he saw the chewed up harness shreds and
became very upset. He asked the palace servants, “How did this happen?” The servants were
responsible for taking care of the palace dogs, and they were afraid to blame them. So the
servants made up a lie. They said that some stray dogs came and chewed the harnesses.
The king became enraged, and felt vengeance against all dogs. He ordered, “If any dog is seen
in the city, it should be killed immediately!” People all over the city started killing every dog
they saw.
The dogs in the city wondered why their friends were being killed, and learned about the king’s
order. They became very frightened and hid in the cemetery outside the city.
The leader of the city dogs, or their “king,” had silver fur and was rather small. He did not
become the leader because he was big and strong, but because he walked with great dignity, so
dogs and even men admired and respected him. He learned a lot, and concentrated his mind on
important things, and was wise and caring. He asked the dogs hiding in the cemetery, “Why are
you frightened?” The dogs told him about the chariot harnesses and the king’s order to kill all
dogs.
The silver dog king knew that city dogs could not get into the palace grounds, because there is a
wall around the palace that no dog could get through. So he knew that the leather harnesses were
chewed by the palace dogs inside the palace grounds. He said, “I’ll save you. Stay here, and I
will go see the king. The truth will save us.”
The dog king concentrated on loving-kindness, loving all beings. He knew that if he was full of
loving-kindness, no one would hurt him. So he walked through the city of Benares bravely,
Copyright 2013 by International Buddhist Society of Pennsylvania
focusing his mind on loving-kindness, so he felt no fear. He walked with such dignity and had
such a kind look in his eyes that no one felt anger toward him. He went through the open palace
gate, and walked straight into the palace, into the throne room, and under the king’s throne! The
servants, worried that the dog would upset the king, tried to remove him. The king said to them,
“No.”
Then the dog king came out from under the throne, bowed to the king, and asked, “Did you order
the killing of all dogs?” The king replied, “yes.” The dog king asked, “What crime did the dogs
do?” The king explained, “Dogs chewed up my new leather harnesses.” The dog king asked,
“Do you know which dogs did that?” The king answered, “No one knows.” The dog king
paused, and then asked, “Is it right to have all dogs killed for the crime done by a few? Is that
proper justice?” The king explained, “Because I don’t know which dogs did it, killing all of
them will ensure that the guilty ones are punished.” The dog king then asked, “Did you order all
dogs to be killed? Every single dog? Are some dogs not to be killed?” The king felt a bit
uncomfortable, and admitted, “Most dogs are to be killed. The fine purebred dogs of the palace
are not to be killed.”
The dog king explained to the king, “You have done the wrong thing by being prejudiced. You
should not favor some dogs over others. Justice must be without prejudice. You have wrongly
killed the poor dogs, and saved the purebred dogs.” The king asked the dog king, “So are you
wise enough to know which dogs chewed my harnesses?” The dog king replied, “Yes, and I will
prove it! Your own favorite palace dogs ate the harnesses.” The king had the servants bring the
palace dogs and feed them buttermilk and grass so that they would vomit. Sure enough, when
the palace dogs vomited, out came the chewed-up bits of leather harnesses!
The dog king said to the king, “No stray dogs can get into the palace. You were blinded by
prejudice. Your palace dogs were the guilty ones. Killing is wrong for any living being – all
living beings deserve respect. All life is related, and we all depend on each other.”
The king felt very humbled, and said to the dog king, “You seem to have perfect wisdom and
loving-kindness, and a proper sense of justice. So my throne and my kingdom are yours.” The
dog king declined the offer, saying “I have no desire for it. You can show your respect to me by
not killing any living being.”
Questions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Why did the king order all dogs to be killed?
Who chewed the leather harnesses?
Why didn’t the king have the palace dogs killed?
How did the king find out that the palace dogs chewed the harnesses?
What did the dog king teach the king?
Copyright 2013 by International Buddhist Society of Pennsylvania
What the Buddha said:
“Those who imagine evil where there is none, and do not see evil where it is, have false views,
and will have unhappy future life.”
Dhammapada 318
Discussion about prejudice:
How did the king feel when he saw the harnesses all chewed up? He felt very angry. He wanted
to punish whoever caused that damage. When he was told that the city dogs chewed the
harnesses, he did not question it. He did not think about the fact that no dogs could come inside
the palace walls. He did not even think about the palace dogs chewing the harnesses. Why? He
was blinded by prejudice. He thought that because they were purebred palace dogs, that they
would not misbehave. He assumed that the city dogs, who roam the streets, would do bad things.
The king pre-judged city dogs as bad and the palace dogs as good. Pre-judice means prejudging.
Similarly, when some wrong act is done, we may assume that someone who is from a different
ethnic group, religion, social class or background than ours did it. We may think, “only those
kind of people would do that.”
Why do we think like that? We may hear some things that are not good about some of them and
we assume that it is true and that all of those people are like that. We develop prejudices from
generalizing: based on the behavior of one or only a few people, we think that everyone who
looks like that person acts like him also. For example, when somebody does something bad, we
notice what that person looks like, and we might think that other people who look similar to that
person also do bad things. For example, if we see a poor person with dirty clothes steal
something, we start to think that many poor people with dirty clothes are thieves.
Why do we generalize like that? Because we don’t know as much about people who are
different from us. We may not try to understand people who are different because we don’t
make an effort to learn about them. Maybe we are more hesitant to be friendly with someone
who comes from a different country, or who dresses in different type of clothes, who talks
differently, who is extremely overweight, who is handicapped, or who has an unusual hairstyle.
If we do that, we are pre-judging the person, based on the way he or she looks, as someone we
should avoid or not be friendly with. We may think “that person is weird,” or “I don’t want to sit
near that person.” We may avoid looking at them or speaking to them. They may notice that we
are not friendly, and feel hurt by our rejection. The pain that they feel may lead to all sorts of
bad feelings, and maybe even bad actions. Some people even commit suicide when they feel
very rejected. Also, if we say negative things about them to our friends, then our friends may
develop prejudices, too. Then we are causing serious harm to many people.
Copyright 2013 by International Buddhist Society of Pennsylvania
Prejudice is when we think of a group or type of people in some negative way, when we prejudge people based on the way they look, or when we discriminate against or avoid people based
on their ethnic group, where they were born, their religion, their wealth, their social class, or any
other difference from us. We are “imagining evil” about the person “where there is none.” We
should try to notice whether we ever have thoughts like this.
And we should also remember to be careful to avoid a person who actually has bad behavior.
Someone who misbehaves is likely to influence us to misbehave if we spend time with him or
her. So we should always be aware of whether we are avoiding someone based on the way they
look or based on their actual misbehavior. We should “see evil where it is” actually.
If we find that we are not avoiding someone for their misbehavior but instead because we have a
prejudice, then are having “false views.” So, to get rid of our false views, we should think kind,
friendly thoughts toward the person. We should remember that differences among people make
the world interesting and beautiful, just like different colors of flowers make a garden interesting
and beautiful.
Activity to reinforce the lesson:
With colored pencils or markers, draw a garden with many different flowers, animals, birds, or
butterflies. Use many different colors for variety. On your picture, you can write something in
your own words that you learned from the lesson. For example, you may write “Many
differences make the world interesting and beautiful” or “Don’t judge people by the way they
look.”
Copyright 2013 by International Buddhist Society of Pennsylvania