Naked City (TV Series)

Without Stick or Sword (1962)

Lawrence Dobkin: Narrator

Quotes 

• [first lines] 

  Narrator : In the great port of Rangoon, in a hut near the docks on a straw pallette, Maung Tun was born twenty-four years ago. His mother fell ill. It was not until seven years later that she gave birth to her second son. Then, without difficulty, came the third, the fourth, and the fifth. Maung Tun's father worked on the docks, loading the ships with rice, teak, and oil. One day a thief stole the father's wages. The neighbors came to console him, but Maung Tun's father said, "No, the man was no doubt in desperate need, else a man would not steal. I am unhappy only that it was my money that provided his temptation." Maung Tun was twelve years old when his father died. His mother took up sewing, and each year she held a memorial service for the needles she had broken during the year. This pious woman taught her sons that the heart which looks up in gratitude to Buddah is filled with love and kindness to all beings, indeed, even to a tree or a blade of grass by the roadside. She taught them mutual respect, the protection of lower animals, and the care of even a grain of wheat, or a sheet of paper. Maung Tun was sixteen when his mother died; so to feed and educate his brothers, he went to sea. The neighbors said it was no life for a Buddhist. But Maung Tun said, "No, it is an opportunity to bring the word of Buddah to those living far away."