A decorated officer of the emperor's guard appeared at the door of the emperor's chambers late in the evening. Torchlight danced upon the walls of the opulent palace. The emperor himself wore a simple gown and lay upon his side on a cushioned sofa draped in fine silk cloth. A handful of ladies kept him company.

"I trust for you to interrupt me so, you have found him," said the emperor waving off the women who scurried out of the room.

"Indeed my emperor, we have." The officer replied, eyes cast to the floor as was custom.

"And how are you certain you have found The Truth Teller?" asked the emperor, turning his attention to a bowl of fruits and plucking a plum from the top. He bit into it and the juice ran down his chin.

"I had my men follow him for days," replied the officer. "They observed him sleep outside in the snow, his body unaffected."

"Then it seems likely he is one of the ten thousand million. Lucky we are to have him appear among men, let alone to have found him. Bring him to me."

The guard nodded and stepped out of the emperor's chambers, returning a moment later with four heavily armed guards who ushered in a bald, heavy-set man.

The emperor examined the man before him and scowled. Though overly-nourished, this man appeared unfit, and wore only a simple robe which did little to cover his protuberant abdomen. He carried nothing but a small cloth sack.

The emperor scoffed, "This is The Veritable Maitreya?" I've spent years and thousands of my best men to find this swine?" He walked over to the man to take a closer look. The prisoner, rather than kneeling or averting his eyes, looked back at the emperor with big, dopey eyes.

"Do you speak, impetuous one?" screamed the emperor, but the prisoner just looked back at the emperor with a soft grin on his face.

The emperor stiffened at this. "You have brought me a simple fool, a mute," he yelled at his guards, turning red. The guards quivered visibly before their mighty ruler.

"I would think I could recognize a deity when I see one," said the emperor walking back to his fruit bowl and this time plucking a fig to eat.

"My emperor," implored the officer. "I assure you we are certain he is the one."

The emperor stood there emitting a low growl while he stared for another few minutes at the fool.

"Fine!" said the emperor. "Tell me Truth Teller, what is the meaning of life?"

The prisoner brightened at this. He sat down upon the stone floor cross-legged. His smile became wide and his eyes twinkled with pleasure. Then he began to laugh. It began low in his great abdomen and grew until it shook all of him, great deep bellows of laughter. The walls seemed to shake as well. The guards could feel it in their bones and despite their fear of the emperor couldn't help but begin to smile and laugh as well.

The emperor observed all of this and became apoplectic.

"How dare you mock me!" screamed the emperor.

But the laughing continued. Until finally, with a big sigh, the laughing buddha exhaled a final time and died.

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A/N: Per wikipedia: Budai

"An account exists of the post mortem appearances of Budai, the Laughing Buddha, recorded in the Ching-te ch'uan-teng-lu (The Transmission of the Lamp), written between 1004 and 1007 CE by the monk Shi Daoyuan.

"In the third month of the third year of Cheng Ming (917 CE), the Master proclaimed his approaching parinirvana. At the Yueh-lin Temple, he took up his seat, cross legged, on a flat stone below the Eastern veranda, and spoke the following verse":

"Maitreya, the Veritable Maitreya, divides his body into ten thousand million parts. From time to time, appearing among men, he proclaims the Truth to the men of that era, but they naturally do not recognise him.""