The Tale of the Hapless Monk
~How intoxicants cause heedlessness~
One lovely spring day, a monk was out on his begging rounds when the beautiful wife of a wealthy business man, recognizing the monk as susceptible to temptaion, invited him into her home. There she engaged him in a spirited conversation. When the monk finally realized that too much time had passed, he went to the door only to discover that it was locked.
"Please," he asked the woman, "would you open this door?"
"Not just yet," the woman said, "I will let you out of the room only if you do one of the following: Kill the goat who is tied up outside the back door, have sex with me, or drink this jug of wine."
The monk tried to think his way out of this dreadful situation. As a peaceful Buddhist, he couldn't resort to violence against the imposing woman in order to fight his way out of the house. Killing a goat would mean breaking the precept against killing; having sex would be breaking his monastic vows of chastity; here it would also mean adultery, which is sexual misconduct and stealing as well. The perturbed monk decided that the least offensive thing he could do would be to drink the wine, which would harm no one but himself. So he did.
Not accustomed to strong spirits, the hapless monk got very drunk, which quickly weakened all of his resolve. By then he was so hungry and lacking in mindfulness that he killed the goat; and while it was cooking, he and the woman had sex. Thus all his pure vows were lost.
~Back to A Permanent State of Limmerance~