The Measure of Rice: A Jataka Tale with Moral
Quick answer: The Measure of Rice, the Tandulanali Jataka, retold in full: a foolish royal valuer prices five hundred horses at a measure of rice, then prices the rice. Moral on flattery.
The king's new valuer looks at five hundred horses and declares them worth one measure of rice, and then the horse dealer asks him how much a measure of rice is worth. The Measure of Rice is the Tandulanali Jataka, number 5 in the Pali collection, and the funniest story in the set.
The story
The king of Benares had a valuer, an honest man whose job was to set a fair price on everything bought for the palace: horses, elephants, jewels, cloth. Because he was honest, the king's money did not stretch as far as the king would have liked. So the king dismissed him and appointed in his place a country fellow who had happened to be standing near the throne, and who knew nothing at all about the value of anything.
A horse dealer arrived from the north with five hundred horses. The new valuer walked round them once and announced, 'Five hundred horses. Worth one measure of rice.' The king, delighted, had a single measure of rice handed over and the horses led to his stables. The dealer stood in the courtyard and could not speak.
He went that evening to the dismissed valuer and told him what had happened. 'Do not argue with the man,' said the old valuer. 'He does not know what a horse is worth, and you cannot teach him in a day. But he also does not know what rice is worth. Go back tomorrow with a gift, and ask, in front of the whole court, what one measure of rice is worth. He will want to please you.' The dealer went back with a bribe, and the new valuer accepted it gladly.
In the morning the dealer bowed before the king. 'Lord, I accept that my horses are worth one measure of rice. But I am a stranger here. Let your valuer tell me what one measure of rice is worth.' The king turned to his man. The valuer, wanting to be generous to his new friend, thought hard and said, 'One measure of rice is worth the city of Benares with all its suburbs.' The court fell about laughing. The king laughed too, and then stopped, and sent the fool back to his village, and recalled the honest valuer, and the dealer went home with his price paid in silver.
The moral, and what it actually means
The Jataka closes with the court's laughter and a verse about the fool who thinks a measure of rice equals a city. In the frame the honest valuer is the Buddha. Its practical point is about the price of flattery. The king hires a man who tells him what he wants, and the man's second answer is as absurd as his first; only the direction changes.
Where the tale sits and why it has lasted
It is Jataka 5, the Tandulanali Jataka, an early piece of comic relief among stories of sacrifice. It has lasted because the trap is made from the fool's own method. He values by mood, so he can be made to value in the dealer's favour by mood, and the honest valuer never has to prove him wrong; the fool proves it himself before the court.
For young readers and classrooms
Very funny from about seven upward.
Write your own
The engine is the incompetent turned against his employer by his own incompetence. Give a powerful character a servant chosen for convenience rather than skill, then let the wronged party use the servant's weakness in the opposite direction. The exposure must happen in public, and the powerful character's laugh must stop halfway.
What writers can take from this
- For readers: the king laughs, then stops; that half-second is where he realises the joke is on him.
- For teachers: this is a good text for talking about why honest advice is worth more than pleasant advice.
- For teachers: pair it with The Mice that Ate Iron, another courtroom scene won by matching an absurdity.
- For writers: reverse the fool's error rather than correcting it; symmetry is funnier than argument.
- For writers: keep the wise character offstage at the climax. The old valuer wins without appearing.
Try it yourself
Write a story in which someone in power replaces an honest expert with a flatterer, and a stranger who has been cheated by the flatterer gets justice by asking one public question the flatterer answers in exactly the wrong direction.
Questions
What is the moral of The Measure of Rice?
Flattery is worthless and folly exposes itself. The valuer who prices five hundred horses at a measure of rice then prices the rice at a whole city, and the king sees what he hired.
Which Jataka is The Measure of Rice?
It is the Tandulanali Jataka, number 5 in the Pali collection, in which the Buddha is the honest valuer who is dismissed and recalled.
Is The Measure of Rice suitable for children?
Yes, from about seven. Nobody is harmed, the fool's answers are laugh-out-loud absurd, and the lesson about honest advice is plain.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working writers. Updated September 2026.
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