In one of the Agama Sutras, the Buddha's early sermons, there is a very interesting story:
Once there was a man who had four wives. According to the social system and circumstances of ancient
India, it was possible for a man to have several wives. Also, during the Heian period in Japan, about a
thousand years ago, it was not unusual for a woman to have several husbands. The Indian had become
ill and was about to die. At the end of his life, he felt very lonely and so asked the first wife to
accompany him to the other world.
'My dear wife,' he said, 'I loved you day and night, I took care of you throughout my whole life. Now I am
about to die, will you please go with me wherever I go after my death?'
He expected her to answer yes. But she answered, 'My dear husband, I know you always loved me. And
you are going to die. Now it is time to separate from you. Goodbye, my dear.'
He called his second wife to his sickbed and begged her to follow him in death. He said, 'My dear second
wife, you know how I loved you. Sometimes I was afraid you might leave me, but I held on to you
strongly. My dear, please come with me.'
The second wife expressed herself rather coldly. 'Dear husband, your first wife refused to accompany
you after your death. How can I follow you? You loved me only for your own selfish sake.'
Lying in his deathbed, he called his third wife, and asked her to follow him. The third wife replied, with
tears in her eyes, 'My dear, I pity you and I feel sad for myself. Therefore I shall accompany you to the
graveyard. This is my last duty to you.' The third wife thus also refused to follow him to death.
Three wives had refused to follow him after his death. Now he recalled that there was another wife, his
fourth wife, for whom he didn't care very much. He had treated her like a slave and had always showed
much displeasure with her. He now thought that if he asked her to follow him to death, she certainly
would say no.