What is the Lucky Cat legend?

So what is the legend of the Lucky Cat - Maneki Nekko.

There is a story of a Japanese monk and a waving cat. A long time ago there was a monk who lived in a shabby hut. It was said that he could barely make ends meet on the small income he made as a practicing mendicant. The monk had a cat which was very precious to him. What food he did have he always shared with his cat and cared for it like it was his own child. one day he said to his cat, "If you are grateful to me bring some fortune to the temple."

After many long months, the monk heard sounds coming from around the gate and he noticed that there were five or six samurai warriors standing there. They said to the monk, "We were about to pass in front of your gate after a long day of hunting but we noticed this cat crouching by the gate and suddenly it lifted up one of its arms and began waving to us. Of course we were surprised and intrigued and that made us stop at your gate and now we would like to ask you if we could rest here."

The monk welcomed the samurai warriors and served them his bitter tea and asked them to make themselves at home and to relax. Suddenly the sky darkened and a heavy rain began to fall with thunder and lightening. While they were waiting for the sky to clear the monk preached his sermon of the past, present and future reasonings, called Sanzei-inga no hou in Japanese.

The samurai warriors were delighted with the sermons and began to think about converting to the temple. Then one samurai announced, "My name is Naotaka Ii. I am the king of Hikone, Koshu prefecture. Due to your cats waving to us, we were able to hear your preaching. This has opened our eyes and it will be the stat of something new for us. This must be the will of Buddah."

Soon after the samurai warriors had returned home, Naotaka Ii dontated huge rice fields and crop lands to make the temple grand and generous as it is now. Because of the cat, fortune has been brought to the temple. Everyone knows that the temple is the symbol of the household serenity, business prosperity and fulfillment of wishes.

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