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"Oh, really?"
A Buddhist story.
Once upon a time, in a village in Japan was living a reputable Buddhist monk. Next to him lived a family of wealthy merchants who had a beautiful daughter.
One day, like a bolt out of the blue, her parents discovered that she was pregnant. Her father was very angry and pressed her to tell who the father of the child was. At first, she wouldn't tell, but eventually she confessed that he was their neighbor, the Buddhist monk.
The merchant went at once to the Buddhist monk. "Ah, so desu ka? (Oh, really?)" was all that the monk said to his angry neighbor.
When the child was born, the merchants gave him to the monk to take care of him, and they told everybody the story of their unfortunate daughter and of the two-faced monk.
The monk had nobody to leave the baby with, and so he carried him everywhere he went. All the villagers who previously had regarded the monk highly were now calling him an immoral man, but he didn't care; he was raising the child with utmost care.
One year passed.
One day, the child mother's just couldn't bear it any more; she confessed her parents she had lied about the child's father: he was a young man working in the fish market, not their neighbor.
They all went at once to the monk to apologize and get the baby back, telling him the truth. "Ah, so desu ka? (Oh, really?)" was all that the monk said, returning them the child.
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