A Lankan tale!

I came across this delighful tale from here while reading through a bit of Sri Lanka's historical background! This is an excert from Hiuen-Tsiang, the famed Chinese traveller, writings about his travels to the Indian subcontinent. Do read through!

"Next to the Temple of the Tooth (in Kandy) was "a small temple which is ornamented with every kind of precious stone. In it is a life sized golden statue of the Buddha cast by a former king of the country. He afterwards ornamented the statues head dress with a precious gem. Apparently the statue had a slightly bent head and a delightful legend was told to explain this.

Once a robber decided to steal the gem in the head dress of the Buddha in the temple which he entered by digging a tunnel. Seeing the huge gem he reached up to take it but the statue miraculously increased in height so that he could not reach it. The robber said to himself; "Formerly when the Tathagata was a bodhisattva, so great was his compassion that he vowed to give up everything, even his own life, for the sake of others. But now the statue which stands in his place begrudges to give up even one little gem. What was said by the old about the Buddha seems to differ from what his statue now does!".

Suddenly the statue bent over and the robber could reach the gem. He ran from the temple and took the gem to a merchant to sell but the merchant recognised the gem, informed the king and the robber was arrested. When asked by the king where he got the gem from the robber said that the Buddha had given it to him and he related what had happened. The sceptical king sent someone to the temple and sure enough the golden statue’s head was still bent over. Convinced that a miracle had occurred, the king brought the gem from the robber, who escaped punishment, and it was placed once again the statue’s head dress."

But most interesting Neither this temple or the delightful legend told about its golden statue survive in any Sri Lankan sources!