A monk from Bangkok, Thailand won the lottery and was forced to flee the temple after endless amounts of people began to come to him to ask for money.
A monk’s primary duties typically revolve around taking care of the temple and furthering their faith through meditation and reflection at the monastery. Having large groups of people flocking to a monk in hopes of receiving a cut of his lottery winnings isn’t typically part of a monk’s daily routine.
Ajahn Montri Samujjo, a 67-year-old monk, won the lottery of 18 million Thai baht, which roughly equates to almost $800,000 Australian dollars. After winning the lottery, the monk gave 1 million baht each to his three children and also donated a portion of his winnings to the temple and those in need, in true monk fashion.
Upon the release of such news, a crowd of people began forming at the temple asking for some of the monk’s money in the name of charity. People had flocked to this temple from surrounding areas, and were disturbing other monks residing at the temple - many monks found it difficult to sleep due to the hustle and bustle that comes with a large crowd.
Due to the disturbance of the crowd, the monk asked to stay at an undisclosed temple in a different province. Monk Sitthi Woradit announced to both the crowd and reporters that Montri Samujjo had left to another temple and begged them to leave.
While it is forbidden for monks to purchase lottery tickets, it was revealed that a lottery ticket seller had come by the temple asking for help. Feeling sorry for the seller, the monk borrowed some money and bought 1500 baht worth of lottery tickets. As the winning numbers were announced, he realised that three of his tickets had won 3 million baht each.