The Man Who Would Not Run

His name means finger garland, because he wore one.

But he was not born that. He was born Ahimsaka, which means the harmless one, the son of the king's own chaplain, and by every account a brilliant boy, and the favourite pupil of a famous teacher at Taxila.

And that is exactly what went wrong.

The other students were jealous of him. So they told the teacher that Ahimsaka had been with his wife.

It was a lie. But the teacher believed it, and he could not simply expel his best student without cause, and he did not want to accuse him openly.

So he set him a final task, and he chose one he was certain would get the boy killed.

He said: bring me a thousand human fingers.

And Ahimsaka objected, he came from a peaceful family and had never harmed anything.