Why should they? They're credited on one
ledger. You credit the same to the business on another. Economic,
ain't it? That was the old man's perception, to begin with. But
afterwards,--maybe his joss house got to be a hobby with him. Oh, I
don't know! Nor I don't care. Fu Shan says it's good property. What
he says is generally so. Profits! I don't care about profits. What
good would they do me? I'm going to run that temple if it ain't too
monotonous."
That was the limit of Sadler's knowledge of this thing. Maya Dala
remembered the Shway Dagohn, but as to the other pagodas and
monasteries,--there were many--he didn't know--he thought they
belonged to the monks, or to the caretakers, or to no one at all, or
maybe the government. What became of the offerings? He thought they
were kept in the pagodas. Sometimes they were sold? It might be so.
He thought it made no difference, for it was taught in the monastery
schools, that the "Giver acquires merit only by his action and the
spirit of his giving, wherefore are the merits of the poor and rich
equal." Why should they care what became of their gifts? From Maya
Dala's talk one seemed to catch a glimpse of the idea, which occurred
to old Lo Tsin Shan, that fishy Oriental, one day forty years before,
and sent him up the river to interview King Tharawady on his gold-lacquer
and mosaic throne.
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