Mice died because of poisoned food

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Question and Answer for Life

By the Most Ven. Phrabhavanaviriyakhun (Luang Phaw Dattajivo)

Question: I have a problem concerning mice around my house. The local municipality provided intoxicant for the public to deal with this problem. I myself received some of it. I mixed that intoxicant with rice and put it around my house. Occasionally the mice ate it and died.

My question is that whether I broke the first precept which is refraining from killing or hurting the life of people and living beings? In the first place I never forced those mice to eat that rice anyway.

Answer: Firstly I would like to tell you something out of my own experience. When I was a high school student, I met a teacher who taught some kind of black magic. He could in a magical way put a piece of animal skin such as skin of buffalo or cow into the stomach of somebody else. How did he do that? I saw him meditating for a while with a piece of animal skin as big as his own hand. After a brief moment that piece of skin shrank into a piece as big as a thumb,

Surprisingly that piece of skin could move as if it was still alive and had magical power as well. If that skin ever came across anything, it could ruin that thing severely.

I asked the teacher whether it’s a sinful act to do such a thing. He answered “I have never intended to harm anyone. But in any case if someone comes across this piece of skin he would definitely get hurt. My act is not sinful though, because there is no intention to hurt a person.”

I thought it through and came to my senses. If there has never been that piece of skin, nobody would ever get hurt by it. Since then I never wanted to learn anything like that ever again.

That teacher is just like you. He denied everything. At the end he passed away. As a result of his own acts, that sort of animal skin caused his own death. What goes around comes around! What do you think if it’s really worthwhile?

You are saying you just put poisoned rice around and the mice ate it by themselves. You shouldn’t be blamed for the death of those mice. Let me raise another example. In the war pilots up there in the sky drop bombs and it accidentally comes on you. The pilot might think “I just dropped the bomb. Whatever happens after that, I can’t take responsibility for it. ”

Dear child, whenever you have to face terrible thing, while the other in your environment hasn’t. You might keep asking “Why it has to be me?” Don’t be surprised dear! You have brought it upon yourself.

Translated by Sunee Vongnoi