One day when he had gone into the hills to gather wood, he saw a large number of monkeys gathered on the other side of the river. They had a stone statue of Jizo on their shoulders, and were about to carry it across.
This seemed interesting, so the old man went over to the riverbed, dusted himself with rice flour, and pretended to be a statue of Jizo. He even turned a mortar upside down and stood on it as a pedestal.
Before long a monkey discovered him and said, "Ah, here's another Jizo-sama. Jizo-sama, we'll take you to your temple and install you there." A number of them gathered around, formed into a shoulder-cart, and put the old man on top.
As they carried him off, they sang, "Who is riding the heavenly hand-cart? Jizo-sama is!"
They walked along singing and started across the river. When they got to the deepest part of the river, they sang, "Monkeys' bottoms might get soaked, but we'll keep Jizo-sama's dry." This was so funny the old man could hardly stand it, but he knew a statue of Jizo would never smile, so he managed to keep a straight face. Besides being deep, the river had a swift current. At times the monkeys seemed about to be swept away, but the song strengthened their resolve, and they put all their strength into carrying him steadily. They arrived safely on the other shore.
They carried him a little further, and came to a small temple. The monkeys carried the old man/Jizo to it and installed him as an object of worship. Then they all placed offerings before him and, after a while, went off somewhere.
When the old man opened his eyes, he saw that the offerings were valuable treasures. The old man was overjoyed; he gathered up the treasures, and took them back to his home.
When he got home, the old man spread out the treasures in the parlor for his family to see. While they were all staring in admiration, the greedy old man next door happened to come over. He was surprised to see the parlor filled with treasures, and asked, "How on earth did this house come to contain such wealth?"
The old man told him what had happened that day. "That's interesting," the greedy old man said. "I'd like to try being Jizo-sama once myself."
And so, the following day the greedy neighbor went to the riverbed as the old man had said, dusted himself all over with rice flour, and stood on an overturned mortar. Before long the monkeys came. "Jizo-sama is here," they said. "We have to install him in the temple."
Then they formed a shoulder-cart as they had the previous day, and carried him away singing "Who is riding the heavenly hand-cart? Jizo-sama is!"
They started across the river. When they got to the deepest part of the river, they sang, "Monkeys' bottoms might get soaked, but we'll keep Jizo-sama's dry," as they had the previous day. The greedy old man thought this was so funny that he couldn't contain himself, and he burst out laughing.
The monkeys were shocked to hear laughter, and stared at Jizo's face. Then they cried, "This isn't Jizo-sama! It's a human! It's a human!"
They all loosed their grips and fled, dropping the greedy old man in the deepest part of the river. He came very close to drowning. This story teaches us not to imitate others.