The Marmot’s Hole

The Oranckay was kind enough to send me this Burayati parable he found over at Languagehat.com

(The Buryats, by the way, speak a Mongolian dialect and are primarily concentrated in the area along Lake Baikal in Siberia):

Once upon a time a Buddhist lama was traveling in the steppe as a “badarch,” a holy man that brings blessings to the nomad families in exchange for food and lodging. It was close to sunset, and he came upon a lone ger and some livestock. When he approached the ger a young woman came out to greet him. She was the only person living there.
When he requested hospitality she said he could stay the night only under one condition. He had to choose to do one of three things. He could drink alcohol, sleep with her, or sacrifice a goat. The last was taboo for lamas since only shamans sacrifice goats. Since all three choices were in some degree sinful, he had a difficult decision. He decided that drinking alcohol would be the least harmful.
He drank the alcohol, and while he was drunk he killed the goat. When he woke up the next morning he was in bed with his hostess. He then learned that drinking alcohol is a small sin but it can easily make a man do bad things under its influence.

The original post has some pretty interesting links as well.