Answer:
Tajima was a samurai without a master (ronin) who loved traveling and on one of his travels, he met with a wandering priest and discovered they were going the same place and they began to discuss to make their journey smoother and before long they were talking about more intimate affairs.
The priest tells the ronin Tajima about his desire to erect a monument for Buddha and how much he has gotten so far which was two hundred ounces of silver. Tajima immediately has it in his heart that he must have possession of that money.
During a boat ride, Tajima tripped the priest and he fell over and drowned.
Taking the priest's money, he took on a new name Tokubei and began trading with the money and soon amassed great wealth
Three years after, he began to be haunted by the ghost of the priest until he was thought to be mad.
It appeared that the priest did not die but survived and eventually raised the money for the bronze statue for Buddha. He forgave Tajima (now Tokubei) and was persuaded to take back the money Tokubei stole from him, with interest.
The theme of the story is Poverty influences a man's decisions and No man is beyond redemption
The author made use of indirect characterization
