The Mouth and the Cat’s Twelve Million Dollars

The afternoon sunlight slanted through the window, gilding the grass before the mansion. On the writing desk, a yellowed sheet of vellum lay flat, waiting for the pen to descend. The owner of that mansion, a wealthy woman, was writing her final will.

She wrote slowly, one character at a time, with no tears and no sighs. And then the final line appeared: all assets, including twelve million dollars, shall belong to... the cat.

Not a single cent for her children, her grandchildren, or the relatives who had once lived with her under this roof. Only a cat. ("Is she insane?" someone might exclaim upon hearing the news. But for her, it was much simpler than that.)

Memories of her children drifted through her mind like an old, grainy film. She remembered their shouts and demands, the times they argued back, their sheer disrespect. In the West, where the law champions "good parents" who must always indulge their children, she had tried. But the more she indulged, the more arrogant they became, their egos grew, and ultimately, they turned into strangers, colder than passersby.

She recalled an instance during an argument when her son had screamed, "You don't understand anything! You're so old-fashioned!" His voice was dripping with contempt, cutting her heart like a knife. She stood there, trembling, unable to speak. From that moment, she understood that the affection she had given them, the hopes she had sown, had been trampled by their very own words.

And the cat? The cat never spoke. It simply lay there, its gaze clear, its tail swishing gently, occasionally nudging her hand with its head and giving a soft "meow." For her, that was the only comfort remaining in a life filled with tears.

"Why a cat?" the lawyer asked, his voice full of confusion.

She set down her pen and looked out the window where the dusk was slowly falling. "Because it doesn't know how to speak words that wound," she replied, her voice strangely calm. "It doesn't know how to curse or despise. And most importantly, it never disappoints us with its speech."

Then she remembered a saying from her childhood, when she was a little girl in Vietnam. Her grandmother often advised, "Child, the mouth is the gateway of both sin and merit. Speak one right word, and you enjoy blessings for a lifetime. Speak one wrong word, and you fall into the three evil paths." Back then, she only half-listened, but now, having lived a whole life, she understood it deeply.

She remembered once, in a moment of anger, saying to her elderly housekeeper, "You're just a useless cat, good for nothing!" That statement was no different from a curse. That housekeeper later led a life of continuous hardship and illness. And she herself, though wealthy, always felt an immense emptiness and profound loneliness.

"Perhaps," she whispered to herself, "I have spoken too many venomous words. Now, I only wish to return what I have taken through my speech."

And so, twelve million dollars—a vast fortune—was given to the cat, as a way to atone for the words that had been spoken, for the indifference and cruelty of human beings.

After she passed away, the lawyer executed the will. The cat was cared for like a queen, living in the luxurious mansion, dining on gourmet meals, with attentive servants. But the irony was, the cat knew nothing of this wealth. It remained just a cat, with the simplest instincts: to eat, to sleep, and to meow.

In the meantime, her children, upon realizing they had not received a cent, flew into a rage. They sued, argued, and even cursed one another. And those very curses became the clearest proof of why she had left her fortune to the cat.

The story spread far and wide, and people talked about it with great fervor. But few recognized the profound lesson hidden within it: Words possess an invisible power, capable of building or destroying an entire life. And sometimes, a mindless cat that cannot speak harmful words is worth more than a vast fortune.

**The Meaning of the Story**

The story of the cat's twelve million dollars is a costly lesson about the power of speech and karma. Words cost very little, yet they have the ability to uplift or diminish another's soul, even determining their destiny. The woman in the story, though materially wealthy, paid a heavy price for her own venomous words and those of her children. She did not leave her fortune to the cat out of madness, but to remind us that sincere, wholesome words are truly precious, while destructive words ruin everything. This is a wake-up call for each of us: Guard your mouth, for it is the gateway to both sin and merit.

*Compiled from a dharma talk by Venerable Thich Chan Quang.*