The Merchant and the Thief: A Folktale of Godly Wisdom

Rating:
Summary: Stolen treasure
Review: The author reminds me a little of the thief in this story. Why plagiarize a tale of compassion from another religious tradition?

This story is adapted from some very ancient and important religious tales from Hindu and Buddhist scripture. The story of Valmiki the robber turned saint (after an encounter with a Hindu sage he tried to rob) is clearly similar. Valmiki went on to author "The Ramayana" one of the most important religious texts of Hinduism.

The story of Angulimala is a Buddhist tale in which a robber and murderer reforms and turns to a life of spirituality in the Sangha (Buddhist monastic order) after trying to rob the Buddha and being changed by his experience with him.

There are many more versions of this story in the Indic religious traditions ... to steal from their wealth to benefit the author's (competing) faith is pretty low.

Rating:
Summary: Gospel adaptation of an Indian folk tale standard
Review: The old standard folk tale with more beef to the story. You've got adventure, larceny, evil, and the logical triumph of good through perception, deception and ingenuity. The illustrations are incredible, with amazing color and lighting. They look like fully rendered fine art oil paintings. My son lit up like a light bulb when he saw this art. Even the cover design is a cut above. I can't believe the publisher wouldn't show pictures of this in Amazon. Lad and Ravi, hats off. A standard for all childrens' books to meet.