During the time of the Buddha, there was a king named Ajātaśatru (literally “Born-Evil King”), known for his fierce nature. One day he was playing in his royal garden when he saw a cat leap from the southeast corner to the northwest corner. Suddenly, the cat flashed with golden light! The king was astonished — a golden cat! He ordered his servants to dig up the spot where the cat disappeared. They dug and dug, but no cat. Instead, they struck something hard — a huge bronze jar. When they opened it, it was completely full of gold!
The king was thrilled, but curious — where did all this come from? They kept digging and found more jars — three in a row. Then even more. In total, the gold stretched for five miles! Imagine — each jar was massive, holding hundreds of pounds of gold.
The king, both amazed and puzzled, went to consult the great disciple Kātyāyana. “What kind of karma leads to such a discovery?” Kātyāyana explained:
“Many eons ago, in the time of Buddha Vipaśyin, a poor woodcutter once saw monks begging with an alms bowl labeled ‘Inexhaustible Treasury.’ Whoever made offerings there would create limitless merit. The man had just sold a load of firewood for three copper coins — his only money for food that day. But he thought, ‘I am so poor because I’ve never practiced generosity. If I keep being stingy, I will be poor forever.’ So, even though he was hungry, he gave all three coins to the monks’ bowl.
On his way home — five miles — he ran joyfully, rejoicing over what he had done. That joy, carried for five miles, multiplied the merit of his offering enormously. For ninety-one eons he was reborn in heaven or among humans, never falling into the lower realms. And now, in this life, he reaps the reward — endless gold.”
The moral? Karma grows when we rejoice in our good deeds. Even a small offering, if done with a happy heart, can create enormous results. And the same is true for negative actions — if we keep brooding over anger or resentment, that bad karma also grows.