Buddhachitta seeds have been stolen from a tree in Chapakharka, a remote village in Makawanpur. Sunil Moktan of Kailash Rural Municipality-1 Chapakharka said that the seeds were stolen from the tree while he was taking a pledge from a merchant for the seeds of the Buddhachitta tree planted in his garden. Moktan said that the Buddhachitta seeds were stolen from the tree while everyone was sleeping in the house on Asad 15. ‘We did not sleep until 12 midnight,’ he said. ‘As soon as we slept, they broke the branches of the tree and took all the seeds.’

When he went to the garden on Monday morning, he said that all the branches containing the seeds had been broken and taken away. The Buddhachitta tree is about 50 meters from Moktan’s house. Just a week ago, Moktan said that he had taken five hundred thousand rupees as collateral from the merchant. He had sold all the seeds of the tree to a merchant from Kavre Temal for 1.2 million rupees. ‘I had settled the matter for 1.2 million rupees and taken 500 thousand rupees as collateral,’ he said, expressing his sorrow. ‘Seeds worth more than 700 thousand rupees were stolen and taken away.’ He said that he was worried about what to give the merchant now. Last year, Moktan had earned eight hundred thousand rupees by selling Buddhachitta seeds. ‘This year, it had yielded more than the previous year,’ he added. Moktan said that he had brought the Buddhachitta seedlings from Kavre and planted them in his garden about 15 years ago. For the past few years, Buddhachitta seeds had started growing on the tree. He had been giving them to the lamas for free, not knowing that they would be sold. He has only started selling it for the past two years. There are currently 22 Buddhachitta trees in Moktan's garden. He brought and planted 21 Buddhachitta seedlings three years ago.