He was hot and thirsty from his long journey. When he came to a deep well, he put down his umbrella and descended the hundred steps to where the water was fresh and clear.  Having slaked his thirst, he climbed up again.  But he found that his umbrella was gone.

Later, in the city, he saw the man who had stolen his umbrella, carrying it boldly along the street.  The traveler approached him, but the thief insisted it was his own property.  So the owner took the thief to court.  Now the Bodhisattva was judge in that city.  Having heard both parties claim ownership of the umbrella, he ordered that it be carefully cut in half. He awarded each of the claimants half an umbrella and told them to go home.

The Bodhisattva sent clerks after each of the men, with instructions to note carefully whatever the families should say on their return home.  The rightful owner was greeted by his wife with the words: “Look what you have done with our best umbrella!  Only half of it is left!  What a pity.”

But when the thief arrived home, his wife scolded him:  “You idiot! Why did you pick up half an umbrella? Of what possible use is that?”

Maha Maya, an incarnation of the last Buddha's mother, gave alms to the poor every day.

The clerks carefully noted these words and returned to the court.  The Bodhisattva compared both clerks’ notes, then summoned the thief to return. He told the thief to pay the owner of the umbrella enough money to buy a new one.

Maha Maya, the ‘Passage of the Saint’

In the time when the Buddha with the name of Vipassy was alive, a daughter named Maya was born to King Panthumavati.  One day she arrived at the Buddha’s abode to worship him. She brought sandalwood in powdered form to burn as incense and prayed: “May I one day become the ‘Passage of the Saint.’”

She meant that she wished to become the mother, the vessel through which the Buddha would one day enter this world for the last time.