Sudās, the gardener, plucked from his tank the last lotus left by the of winter and went to sell it to the king at the palace gate.  
There he met a traveller who said to him, “Ask your price for the last lotus,—I shall offer it to Lord .”
 
Sudās said, “If you pay one golden māshā it will be yours.”
 
The traveller paid it.
 
At that moment the king came out and he wished to buy the flower, for he was on his way to see Lord Buddha, and he thought, “It would be a fine thing to lay at his feet the lotus that bloomed in winter.”
 
When the gardener said he had been offered a golden māshā t............