A monk had a disciple who was a householder. He was deeply attached to his family although his preceptor talked to him now and then about the unreality of the world. The preceptor spoke about the unreality of the domestic life such as that which existed between husband and wife or father and child, but the disciple found that all his happy experiences belied his preceptor’s words. The monk, in order to prove the truth of his proposition, one day, gave the disciple a pill and said that if he swallowed it he would appear as a dead man to others, though he would retain his consciousness in full. The monk asked him to report what he observed after taking the pill. The man accordingly took the pill and in a moment he lay still like a dead body; and the heart-beats and breathings stopped. All the members of his family gathered around him and began to weep. The neighbours took the body outside the house and preparations were made to cremate the body. Just then a mendicant appeared and asked what had taken place. The man’s mother narrated to him, the sad story of her son’s sudden death, punctuating her tale with bitter sobs and tears. The mendicant then said that he could bring her son to life if she could get another person to die in his place. His own mother said, “I would die gladly because I have come to the end of my life, but if I go what will happen to these small children of my son? Alas, they are all so fond of me.” The mendicant then turned to the man’s wife and asked her whether she was ready to sacrifice her life for her husband. The wife replied, “My children are all small. Who will look after them if I die?” Shortly after this, the dead man’s life returned to him and he sat up as one dazed. His preceptor, for it was none other than he who had come in the garb of the mendicant, then said, “Do you still believe in worldly attachment? Are you not now convinced that they are vain and illusory? Come away with me from the world.” The man who had suddenly discovered the unreality of worldly attachment left his home and went away with the monk for ever.