Buddhist Story - The Story of 11 Piglets

Once upon a time in Yongzhou (China), there lived a butcher whose surname was Zhang. Everyday he would kill a pig to supply the demand for the people who lived around him. However, slaughtering pigs was an act of killing sentient beings.

Therefore he often thought of making a living out of another profession, "Hmm, I should change my profession! There are many jobs I can do out of '360 professions'. Why should I be a butcher? My knife has to kill a pig and "dye" it red each day. If I kill 30 pigs each month, then I would have killed 360 pigs every year. It's terrible whenever I think about it."

However, Butcher Zhang had a family to feed. Slaughtering pigs was a profession he could do with ease. Therefore his thought of changing profession became replaced by another thought. He would reassure himself, "Oh well, well! Changing profession is not that easy, is it? Furthermore, it isn't me who like killing pigs. It's other people who like to eat pork. Otherwise, who would I sell them to when I kill them? Even though I incur bad retribution, those who eat pork should also share the responsibilities with me as well. Also we keep pigs because we want to eat them, don't we?!!"

Since he has to arrive at the morning market early, and because the pigs made tremendous noise as he killed them, he chose to slaughter at dawn. Butcher Zhang had a habit which he had been keeping up for years. Every morning, as soon as he heard the bell sound from the nearby Buddhist temple, he would get up and slaughter a pig. This habitual action had never changed.

However, one day, he got up late. Later, he found out that the temple did not ring the bell at all that morning. When the butcher went to the pig-shed, he discovered the mother pig he was going to kill had given birth to 11 piglets in the morning. Every one of them was leaning close to the mother, suckling her milk. How lovely they were! He felt the event was extraordinary.

Therefore he went to the temple. The abbot of the temple told him, "I had a dream last night. I dreamt of 11 children who knelt down to beg me to save the life of their mother. I asked them how I could save her. They replied it was very simple. All I needed to do was not to ring the bell." 11 children? 11 pigs? Suddenly the butcher understood the relationship between them. He threw his butcher knife into the river. Eventually, he changed his profession.

- Extract of "Buddhist Children Stories" (The White Cloud Cultural Centre) [slightly touched up]