Surprisingly the story has stayed with me for so long.
Two monks,Lao and Zu were walking through a jungle to go to another village. After a week's session of continuous prayers at their monastery they wanted to visit another monastery in a village far away. As is the case with monks, they decided to walk their way through the jungle.
After almost half a day's walk they reached a clearing and saw a wide river. Due to the previous monsoons the makeshift bridge had been destroyed. As they were debating on ways to cross the river, they noticed a very beautiful princess sitting on a rock near the river. They knew she was a princess because of the way she wore her gown and her posture. She looked helpless and in despair.
On enquiry the monks found out that she wanted to get across the river and was in a fix as she didnt know how to swim and was in royal wear.
Because monks dont interact with women, let alone touch them, this was a dilemma for both the monks in question. Finally Lao offered to carry the woman on his shoulders across the river.Before Zu could protest and remind Lao of scriptures, Lao lifted the woman and began wading through the waters to reach the other side.
After a fair bit of swim, the two monks left the lady on the other side and continued their walk.
Zu wondered how he could have stopped Lao from carrying the woman, but kept quiet for a long time. He was in confusion and worried silently about the way Lao had shown complete disregard for their belief system.
After about one hour of silent walking,he couldnt contain any longer, Zu ventured to ask " How could you have carried that woman when you know its not allowed in our scriptures? Dont traditional beliefs mean anything to you? "
Lao replied, " I dropped that woman off at the river bank. Why are you still carrying her? "
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