You can also find storytelling ideas here: Teaching Guide, see #112-137.
You'll want to click on track 51 to start the audio portion for this section:
~ 51. The Rabbit and the Coconut ~
Rabbit slept under a coconut-tree, and a coconut fell on his head.
"The sky's falling!" Rabbit shouted. He jumped and ran.
"What's wrong?" Deer asked.
"End of the world! The sky's falling!" shrieked Rabbit, and Deer ran with him.
They met Fox. "What's wrong?" she asked.
Rabbit panted, "Sky falling! End of world!"
Now Rabbit, Deer, and Fox were running.
Monkey, Leopard, Elephant... all running!
Lion stopped them. "Who says it's the end of the world?"
They pointed at Rabbit, and Rabbit took Lion to the tree.
"A coconut fell down!" Lion roared. "It's not the end of the world."
~ 52. The Fox in the Flood ~
A fox had fallen into a rushing river.
"Help!" the fox shrieked. "It's the end of the world! A flood! Save yourselves! The end of the world!"
A man standing on the riverbank heard the fox's cries of alarm. He grabbed a branch and extended it to the fox, and then he pulled the fox to shore.
"Thank you, good sir!" said the fox.
"But what about the end of the world?" said the man. "Your words scared me!"
"Well, the world was ending," said the fox. "My world anyway!"
And with that, the fox scampered off into the woods.
~ 53. The Horse Tied to a Tree ~
A traveler tied his horse to a tree and lay down to sleep.
A thief stole the horse and returned to rob the traveler too, but the traveler woke up unexpectedly.
"Where's my horse?" he shouted.
"The tree ate him," said the thief.
"Impossible!" retorted the traveler. "See that fox? She'll tell us what happened."
"I didn't see the tree eat the horse," said the fox, "because I was too busy watching flames shoot forth from the pond over there."
"But flames can't shoot forth from ponds," said the thief.
"No more than trees can eat horses," said the fox.
~ 54. The Tiger and the Fox ~
A tiger found a fox in a trap.
"What are you doing there?" he asked.
"I did this for you!" replied the fox. "I'm luring men here so you can eat them."
"How kind of you!" said the tiger, who went to wait in the bushes.
The hunters came and found the fox.
"I've lured the tiger here so you can kill him," said the fox. "He's there in the bushes."
"How kind of you!' said the hunters, who then let the fox go.
"Good luck, hunters!" shouted the fox as she ran off. "And good luck to you, tiger!"
~ 55. The Tiger and the Golden Bangle ~
An old tiger lived beside a pond.
When a traveler passed nearby, the tiger shouted, "Here! Take this golden bangle!"
The traveler was surprised by the tiger's words. "Show me the bangle!" he said.
The tiger showed him.
"But can I trust you?" asked the traveler.
"I'm old," said the tiger, "with no teeth and no claws. Before I die, I'm giving away my wealth. Come! Cross the pond and take the bangle."
When the man waded into the pond, he got stuck in the mud.
"I'll help you!" said the tiger.
So saying, the tiger pounced and devoured him.
~ 56. The Twin Parrots ~
A parrot gave birth to twins with identical green bodies, blue heads, red wings, and yellow tails. Bandits carried away one chick; a monk took the other.
A king rode through the forest one day. He passed the bandits' camp, and a parrot squawked, "Bind him! Kill him!" The king saw the parrot was green, blue, red, and yellow.
He then passed a hermitage. "Honor the king!" a parrot squawked.
"I saw a parrot just like you: green, blue, red, and yellow," said the king. "But he spoke differently."
"We were born as twins," replied the parrot, "but raised differently."
~ 57. The Captive Fawn ~
A prince went hunting and caught a fawn which he took home as a pet.
The fawn, however, was unhappy: he longed to return to the herd.
One day the fawn shouted, "Woe is me! What is this nightmare? Where's my herd?"
This terrified the prince. "A speaking fawn is an evil portent," he thought, so he summoned his magicians and wise men.
"Save me from this demon!" he pleaded.
"Just listen to the words," said one of the wise men, "and let the fawn go."
So the prince freed the fawn, and he was not troubled by portents again.
~ 58. The King and his Monkey ~
A king appointed a pet monkey to be his royal sword-bearer and bodyguard.
One day, the king went into the royal gardens. The day was hot, so the king decided to nap in the shade of a tree.
"Let no one disturb me!" he commanded the monkey.
After a while, a bumblebee flew by and landed on the king's nose. The monkey raised his sword and brought it down upon the offending insect, lest it disturb the king.
He killed the bee, but he also killed the king.
Thus a foolish friend is more dangerous than the most dangerous enemy.
~ 59. The Monkeys and the Gardener ~
The royal gardener wanted a vacation.
There were some monkeys living in the garden, so the gardener decided to put the monkeys in charge while he was gone.
“Make sure you water all the plants!” he told the monkeys.
“We should inspect the roots first," commanded the chief of the monkeys. "The deep roots need lots of water; the shallow roots not so much.”
So the monkeys inspected the roots carefully, pulling them up out of the ground to look at them.
The gardener came back from vacation to find all the plants were dead, uprooted by the foolish monkeys.
~ 60. Monkey See, Monkey Do ~
One day a monkey in a tree watched while the woodcutters worked.
When the woodcutters went to eat their lunch, he jumped down on the log where they were using wedges to split the wood.
"Why did they put this thing here?" he wondered. Monkeys are curious creatures, and this monkey was more curious than most.
So, the monkey grabbed the wedge and pulled it out... and then the log snapped shut on his privates! He was trapped, and it was all because of his own foolishness.
Learn from the monkey: do not meddle in things you know nothing about.
~ 61. The Monkey and the Sparrow ~
There was a sparrow who lived in a nest high up in a tree.
One day, she saw a monkey shivering at the foot of the tree.
"If you are cold," she said, "you should build a house!"
The monkey did not listen to her, but the sparrow kept giving him advice.
"I can tell you how to build a house!" she chirped.
"I have a very nice house!" she chirped more loudly.
"A house will keep you warm!" she kept on chirping.
Finally, the monkey got so angry that he climbed up the tree and destroyed the sparrow's house.
~ 62. The Wild Geese ~
Some wild geese lived in a tree.
The oldest goose noticed a vine growing up the tree. "We must tear down that vine before a human climbs it!" she said, but the young geese mocked her.
A hunter later climbed the tree and placed a snare there which trapped all the geese.
"Play dead!" said the old goose.
This time, the other geese did as she said.
The hunter found the birds all dead - or so he thought - and tossed them to the ground.
Then, as he was climbing down the tree, they all flew away to safety!
~ 63. The King of the Doves ~
A hunter spread a net on the ground, covering it with grain.
When doves rushed to eat the grain, their feet were caught. The more they thrashed, the more tightly they were trapped.
"Be calm!" said the dove-king. "Use your wings instead."
Together, the doves flapped their wings and rose up, carrying the net, while the hunter shouted at them angrily.
The doves then flew to the home of their friend: a mouse.
"Help us, mouse!" said the dove-king, and the mouse chewed through the knots and freed all the doves from the net.
The moral: Cooperate, and be kind.
~ 64. The Gadfly and the Lion ~
A gadfly found a lion sleeping in his den. She bit the lion's lip and drank his blood.
The lion awoke and grabbed the gadfly.
"Mercy!" begged the gadfly. "Let me go and I'll do you a favor someday."
The lion scoffed at the idea of a gadfly doing him a favor, but he let the creature go.
Some days later, the gadfly saw hunters creeping towards the lion's den. She once again bit the lion, waking him. "You must go," shouted the gadfly, "or else the hunters will trap you here!"
The lion thus escaped, thanks to a gadfly.
~ 65. Turtle, Deer, Mouse, and Crow ~
A turtle, deer, mouse, and crow were all friends.
One day a hunter caught the turtle and carried her away in a sack.
The mouse advised the deer to lie down in the hunter's path, pretending to be dead, while the crow pretended to peck at her dead body.
When the hunter saw the deer, he put down the sack, got out his knife and advanced towards the deer.
The mouse quickly gnawed a hole in the sack so the turtle escaped, while the crow flapped in the hunter's face till the deer got away.
The moral: Friendship is powerful.
~ 66. Deer, Crow, and Jackal ~
A deer and a crow lived as friends.
The deer then befriended a jackal. The crow, however, mistrusted the jackal.
The next day the jackal led the deer into a snare.
"Help!" yelled the deer.
The crow flew up and squawked so loudly that a hunter came running. "Pretend you're dead!" the crow whispered to the deer.
The deer lay down as if dead, and when the hunter freed her from the snare, she leaped up and ran off.
The hunter shot at the deer, but hit the jackal instead, killing him.
The deer no longer made friends with jackals.
~ 67. The Hunter and the Jackal ~
A hunter shot a deer and was carrying it home when he saw a boar. "I'll catch the boar too!"
The hunter shot the boar, but only wounded it.
The boar attacked, killing the hunter, and then died of its wounds.
When the boar fell, it happened to crush a snake to death.
A jackal strolled by.
"What a feast!" he exclaimed. "Human, deer, boar and snake! I don't want to miss out on anything edible. I can even eat the bowstring!"
But when the greedy jackal gnawed the bowstring, the bow snapped, struck the jackal and killed him too.
~ 68. The Goose and the Crow ~
A goose and a crow lived together in a tree.
One hot day, a hunter decided to rest beneath that tree.
As he slept, the sun moved, exposing his face, so the kindly goose shaded the man's face from the sun with her wings.
Meanwhile, the wicked crow pooped down on the man's face and then flew away, cackling with delight.
When the man awoke, he wiped away the poop and, looking up, he saw the goose.
"You cursed bird!" he shouted.
He then grabbed his gun and shot the goose dead.
The moral: Be careful what company you keep.
~ 69. The Monkey and the Goat ~
A wily monkey once stole a workman's rice and lentils.
After gobbling almost all the food, the monkey then set about laying the blame on someone else.
"The goat would make a likely culprit," the monkey thought to himself.
So the monkey fed the rest of the rice and lentils to the goat, making sure to smear food all over the goat's mouth and in his beard.
"Thank you, monkey!" said the gullible goat.
When the workman returned, he blamed the goat.
"You cursed beast!" he shouted as he beat the poor goat, while the monkey just laughed and laughed.
~ 70. The Louse and the Flea ~
There was once a louse who lived in the king's palace.
She grew fat sucking on the king's blood, but because she nibbled gently, the king never realized she was there.
It was a good life.
One day, a flea dropped in. "What a nice bed this is!" he said.
The louse protested. "The king will feel your unfamiliar bite. Go away!"
But the flea didn't go away, and he bit the king while he slept.
The king was furious, and he called his servants to come inspect the bed. The flea escaped, but the louse was caught and killed.
~ 71. The Turtle and the Peacock ~
A turtle saw a peacock dancing beside a pond.
"I want to dance with you," said the turtle.
The peacock looked at him doubtfully. "You're too slow, and you have no feathers to compare with mine."
"I'll surprise you," said the turtle, "for my shell is truly colorful and, though slow, I am graceful."
So the turtle danced with the peacock, and the peacock had to admire his lovely shell and steady pace.
A hunter, however, discovered them there.
The peacock flew to safety in a tree, but the hunter caught and killed the turtle before he reached the pond.
~ 72. The Turtle in the Lake ~
The princes shouted, "Father, we saw a terrible lake-monster!"
The king's guards went and caught the monster.
It was only a turtle, but the princes had never seen a turtle before and it frightened them.
"How shall we kill it?" the king asked.
"Crush it!" said the first prince.
"Burn it!" said the second.
"Drown it!" said the third.
Then the turtle shrieked, "Don't drown me! Crush me, burn me, but please don't drown me!"
"Drown the turtle!" the king commanded.
The guards threw the turtle into the lake.
The turtle shouted "Home at last!" as he happily swam away.
~ 73. The Turtle and the Two Birds ~
A turtle once befriended two birds, and the three friends lived together at a lake.
The lake was drying up, so the birds offered to carry the turtle away.
“You bite the middle of this stick, and we'll carry the ends in our beaks," they said. "But you must keep your mouth closed. Don't open your mouth, okay?”
“Okay!” the turtle said.
They soared into the sky: the plan worked!
But then people on the ground started laughing.
"That turtle looks ridiculous up there!" they said.
The turtle opened his mouth to rebuke them and thus plunged to his death.
~ 74. The Donkey and the Jackal ~
A farmer allowed his donkey to wander freely at night.
One night the donkey met a jackal and they became friends.
Together, they broke into a cucumber field and ate all the cucumbers they wanted.
Then the donkey decided to sing.
"Don't do that!" hissed the jackal.
But the donkey insisted on singing. "I have a lovely singing voice," he said. "You're just jealous!"
The jackal hid in the bushes and watched. The donkey sang very loudly, and finally the villagers came and cudgeled him to death.
"Music is all well and good," thought the jackal, "but silence is safer."
~ 75. The Donkey and the Tiger-Skin ~
There was a laundryman who had a donkey.
One day, the laundryman found a tiger-skin in the jungle and put the tiger-skin on his donkey.
"The farmers will be afraid of my tiger," he thought.
Wearing the tiger-skin, the donkey was able to graze in the barley-fields at night, getting fat on the farmers' barley.
But one night, the donkey heard the bray of a she-donkey, and he could not resist: he also started to bray!
The farmers realized this was not a tiger, but a donkey, so they beat the poor donkey and drove him away from their fields.
~ 76. The Donkey and the Watchdog ~
A thief came to rob a house.
The donkey said to the watchdog, "You should bark!"
"Our master treats us badly," said the dog. "Why should I bark?"
Since the dog wouldn't bark, the donkey brayed.
This scared the thief, but the master didn't know anything about that. Instead, he was furious that the donkey woke him up. In his rage, he beat the donkey so badly that the donkey died.
The dog shook his head sadly. "The donkey should have listened to me and kept his mouth shut."
The thief returned the next night.
The dog did not bark.
~ 77. The Brave Mongoose ~
A brahmin and his wife had a pet mongoose.
One day the woman went out.
"Watch the baby!" she told her husband.
Then the man went out.
"Watch the baby!' he told the mongoose.
Then... a snake came!
The brave mongoose killed the snake, overturning the baby's cradle in their struggle.
When the woman returned, she saw the overturned cradle and the mongoose covered in blood. Thinking it had killed her baby, she killed the mongoose.
Then she heard her baby crying and found the remains of the snake, and so she wept for the terrible mistake she had made.
~ 78. The Pilgrims and the Jewels ~
Three pilgrims found some jewels in the road.
"Let's eat them for safekeeping!" they said.
A beggar lurking nearby heard this. He joined their party, planning to cut them open that night.
But then a robber ambushed them.
"Jewels! Jewels!" squawked the robber's parrot.
The robber seized and stripped them. No jewels.
The parrot kept squawking, "Jewels!"
"I'll cut you open!" shouted the robber.
The beggar, racked by guilt for his wicked plan, shouted, "The parrot lies! Cut me first; you'll see!"
The robber cut him open.
No jewels.
So the robber let the pilgrims go ... and punished the parrot.
~ 79. The Bandit's Ghost ~
A bandit stole the village bell and fled to the hills where a tiger killed him. Whenever people heard the bell ringing, they whispered in fear, "It's the bandit's ghost!"
But it was only a monkey ringing the bell.
The village-chief offered a reward for anyone brave enough to defeat the ghost and retrieve the bell.
A wise woman guessed the truth.
"I can defeat the ghost!" she proclaimed.
She took no weapons, just fruit. She fed the fruit to the monkey, and thus she snatched the bell.
She returned to the village ringing the bell and claimed her reward.
~ 80. The Rats in the House ~
A foolish man saw there were rats in his house.
He was determined to destroy the rats, so he set his own house on fire.
His house burned down to the ground.
But the rats escaped by running to the house next door, so the man burned down that house too.
"You won't escape me, you rats!" he shouted.
But the rats just ran into the next house, so the man set that house on fire as well.
And the next. And the next.
Give him enough time and that fool will burn down all the houses in the world.
~ 81. The Rats and the Jackal ~
The Buddha was born as a rat, and there was a jackal who liked to eat rats.
To trick them, the jackal pretended to be a sadhu, gazing at the sun, standing on one leg, eating no food.
Each day the rats would run by the saintly jackal, and each day the jackal grabbed the last rat running by.
The Buddha suspected something was wrong, so he brought up the rear.
When the jackal tried to grab him, the Buddha shouted, “You evil hypocrite!” He jumped at the jackal’s throat and killed him, and the rats enjoyed a great feast.
~ 82. The Jackal in the Elephant ~
In another lifetime, the Buddha was again born as a jackal.
One day, this jackal found an elephant carcass.
“Food!” he shouted happily.
He gnawed the elephant's trunk; not much meat there.
The tusk was like bone.
The ear was tough.
The feet were hard as rocks.
Then the jackal crawled inside where the meat was soft to eat. He stayed in there for days.
Meanwhile, the summer heat made the carcass shrink.
The jackal couldn't get out. He was trapped!
Finally it rained.
As the carcass expanded again, he escaped.
“I'll never be so greedy again!” the Buddha vowed.
~ 83. The Jackal and the Corpse ~
The Buddha was again born as a jackal, and he made his home in the cremation fields amidst the corpses.
A wicked man who wanted to kill the jackal had gone there and lay on the ground, club in hand, pretending to be dead.
The jackal approached, but he suspected this man was not really dead.
He grabbed the club in his teeth and tugged. The man tightened his grip, and the jackal let go.
“Human, if you were dead, you wouldn’t have tightened your grip.”
The man then sprang up, but he was too late: the Buddha had escaped.
~ 84. The Jackal and the Lion ~
The Buddha was once born as a lion.
A jackal asked to be this lion's servant. The lion agreed, and the jackal grew fat eating food the lion killed.
As time went by, the jackal thought he was as strong and mighty as a lion. “I'm ready to kill an elephant on my own!” he boasted.
The lion warned him of the danger, but the jackal wouldn’t listen.
Then, when the jackal tried to bite an elephant’s foot, the elephant crushed the jackal to death.
“Foolish jackal,” said the Buddha, “you learned your limitations at the cost of your life.”
~ 85. The Deer and his Nephew ~
The Buddha was born as a deer.
The deer's sister said to her son, "Go to your uncle and learn the tricks you need to stay safe from hunters."
But the young deer didn't listen to his mother.
The Buddha said to him, "Nephew, there are things you must learn to stay safe. I will teach you."
But the young deer didn't listen to his uncle.
He then fell into a hunter's trap and was killed.
"Brother," said the Buddha's sister, weeping, "why didn't you teach him?"
"I couldn't teach him," said the Buddha, "because he didn't want to learn."
~ 86. The Two Oxen ~
The Buddha was born as an ox. His name was Big Red, and he had a brother named Little Red.
They lived on a farm together with other animals, including a pig.
The oxen worked hard, but the pig didn't work; the pig just ate.
And ate.
And ate.
Little Red was jealous, but Big Red told him, "That pig is eating the food of death; they are fattening him up for a wedding."
Big Red was right: when the wedding day came, that was the end of the pig, and Little Red recognized the wisdom of the Buddha's words.
~ 87. The Fish and the Crane ~
The Buddha was once born as a fish, and through his good actions he became the king of the fish.
There was a crane who wanted to eat the fish, so he pretended to be asleep. The other fish were fooled, but the Buddha realized that the crane was their deadly enemy.
"My fellow fish," the Buddha said, "we must drive this wicked creature away, and it will take all of us working together. One, two, three... SPLASH."
At the Buddha's command, the fish all started splashing at the crane until he finally flew away to look for food elsewhere.
~ 88. The Parrot and the Mangos ~
The Buddha was born as a parrot. He had a son. When he grew up, the son cared for his elderly father, bringing him food.
One day the son flew to an island full of mango trees. He brought back a mango.
"Beware, my son," said the parrot’s father. "That is too far; do not go to the mango island."
But the son did not listen. He flew again to the mango island, and then he grew so tired flying home that he fell into the ocean, and a fish ate him.
The Buddha waited, but his son never returned.
~ 89. The Woodpecker and the Lion ~
The Buddha was once born as a woodpecker.
One day this woodpecker saw a lion, groaning in pain.
“Help me, woodpecker!" shouted the lion. "Extract the bone stuck in my throat, and I’ll give you a reward!”
The woodpecker agreed, but he was cautious.
First, he propped the lion’s mouth open with a stick, and only then did he extract the bone.
After emerging from the lion’s mouth, he knocked away the stick.
“What’s my reward?” the woodpecker asked.
“Escaping my teeth is reward enough!” the lion snarled.
Thus the Buddha knew he was wise not to trust the lion.
~ 90. The Quail Chick ~
The Buddha was born as a tiny quail chick.
The chick lived in a nest, fed by his mother and father, and he could not fly yet.
Then one day, a huge fire swept through the forest, and the mother and father quail flew away in fear.
Because the quail chick could not fly, he summoned the power of his past Buddha lives and spoke forth. “In the name of Truth," shouted the little bird, "I defy you, Fire! Turn back now!”
And so the flames of the forest fire were extinguished by the miraculous power of the Buddha's words.
~ 91. The Quail and the Hunter ~
The Buddha was born as a quail.
A hunter caught the Buddha and his flock, and he put them in cages, feeding them well and fattening them to sell.
“If we don't eat, we'll grow thin," the Buddha thought, "and that might save us."
So he told the others, "Don't eat!"
But they ate the food and grew fat, and then the hunter sold them.
Meanwhile, the Buddha grew thin and lay motionless in the cage.
"Is it dead?" the hunter wondered.
He took the bird out to see what was wrong, and the Buddha jumped up and flew away.
~ 92. The Birds by the Lake ~
The Buddha was born as a bird, and he lived with other birds in a tree that stretched over a lake.
Some of the birds peed and pooped in the lake, and this made the great Naga-snake who lived in the lake angry.
The Naga made the waters of the lake boil, and he shot flames from his mouth into the branches of the tree.
“We must fly away!” said the Buddha, and the wise birds followed him to safety.
The foolish birds, however, stayed in the tree, peeing and pooping in the water, until they died in the flames.
~ 93. The Birds in the Tree ~
The Buddha was born as a bird and he lived together with a flock of birds in a mighty tree; the Buddha was the king of these birds.
The branches of the tree where the birds lived began to grind one against the other, producing sparks and smoke.
The king realized that this was the beginning of a fire, so he warned all the other birds. “We must fly away now!” he told them.
The wise birds listened, but the foolish birds ignored the Buddha's words.
The whole tree caught on fire, and the foolish birds perished in the flames.
~ 94. The Crow by the Highway ~
The Buddha was born as a bird and became their king.
There was a crow who hopped along the highway, eating the food that humans dropped there.
The bird-king warned all the birds that the human highway was dangerous, but the crow kept going there anyway, greedy for food.
One day as the crow was eating, she saw a caravan coming down the highway. “I’ll fly away soon!” she said, but she kept on eating... and so she was crushed under the wheels of a wagon.
“The highway is dangerous," said the Buddha, "but being greedy is even more dangerous."
~ 95. The Bird-King and the Peacock ~
The Buddha was again born as a bird, and again he became their king.
The bird-king had a daughter, and the time had come for her to choose a husband.
She liked the beautiful peacock most of all.
“I want the peacock to be my husband,” she said.
The peacock danced with excitement, and as he danced he exposed his private parts for all to see.
The birds were shocked!
The king of the birds said, “I can't let my daughter marry this bird. He is beautiful, but his dancing has led to disaster.”
The peacock flew away in shame.
~ 96. The Swan with the Golden Feathers ~
The Buddha was born as a man who had a wife and children.
When the man died, he was reborn as a swan with golden feathers.
The swan flew home and gave his wife a feather. “I'll return soon and give you more,” he promised.
But when he returned, his wife plucked all his feathers.
“Wicked woman, what have you done?” he cried, and the feathers in her hands became ordinary white swan feathers.
The wife threw the plucked swan into the garbage.
Then, when the Buddha's feathers grew back - white now, not golden - he flew away and never returned.
~ 97. The Drummer and the Bandits ~
The Buddha was born as a drummer, and his son was a drummer too.
Returning from a festival, they had to cross a forest full of bandits.
“I'll scare the bandits by beating the drum constantly,” said the boy.
“No!” said the Buddha. “Just beat the drum slowly now and then, like the drummer for a great lord.”
At the first drumbeats, the bandits fled, but when the son kept on drumming, they became curious. Then, when they saw a father and son traveling alone, they attacked and robbed them.
Too much, even of a good thing, is not good.
~ 98. The Monk and his Snake ~
There was once a Buddhist monk who had adopted a poisonous snake, keeping the snake in a cage like a pet.
The Buddha warned this monk that the snake couldn't be trusted, but the monk did not listen.
“I can't live without my snake friend,” he said.
One day the monk went to feed his snake. “Come here, my dear snake,” he said as he opened the cage. "I have food for you!"
Hunger had made the snake impatient, and it bit the monk on the hand.
Thus the foolish monk died, and the snake slithered away into the forest.
~ 99. The Buddha and the Mantra ~
The Buddha had taught one of his young disciples a mantra for bringing the dead to life.
"Use it carefully," the Buddha warned him.
Later on, the young man, together with some other disciples, went into the jungle. There they found a dead tiger.
"I will bring this dead tiger to life!" the disciple shouted, and then he spoke the mantra.
A living tiger sprang up, killed the young disciple, and ran off.
The other disciples returned to the Buddha and told him what had happened.
"Before people do favors for villains," the Buddha said, "they should consider the outcome."
~ 100. The Three Friends and the Tiger ~
There were three friends making their way through a jungle when they were attacked by a tiger.
The first friend shouted, "We are lost!"
The second friend shouted, "God, please save us!"
The third friend shouted, "We need to climb a tree!"
Here is what you need to understand about these three men.
The first man did not know God at all.
The second man was a seeker of God.
The third man had an ecstatic and complete love of God. His goal was not to save himself from the tiger, but to spare his beloved any trouble or worry.
Rabbit slept under a coconut-tree, and a coconut fell on his head.
"The sky's falling!" Rabbit shouted. He jumped and ran.
"What's wrong?" Deer asked.
"End of the world! The sky's falling!" shrieked Rabbit, and Deer ran with him.
They met Fox. "What's wrong?" she asked.
Rabbit panted, "Sky falling! End of world!"
Now Rabbit, Deer, and Fox were running.
Monkey, Leopard, Elephant... all running!
Lion stopped them. "Who says it's the end of the world?"
They pointed at Rabbit, and Rabbit took Lion to the tree.
"A coconut fell down!" Lion roared. "It's not the end of the world."
~ 52. The Fox in the Flood ~
A fox had fallen into a rushing river.
"Help!" the fox shrieked. "It's the end of the world! A flood! Save yourselves! The end of the world!"
A man standing on the riverbank heard the fox's cries of alarm. He grabbed a branch and extended it to the fox, and then he pulled the fox to shore.
"Thank you, good sir!" said the fox.
"But what about the end of the world?" said the man. "Your words scared me!"
"Well, the world was ending," said the fox. "My world anyway!"
And with that, the fox scampered off into the woods.
~ 53. The Horse Tied to a Tree ~
A traveler tied his horse to a tree and lay down to sleep.
A thief stole the horse and returned to rob the traveler too, but the traveler woke up unexpectedly.
"Where's my horse?" he shouted.
"The tree ate him," said the thief.
"Impossible!" retorted the traveler. "See that fox? She'll tell us what happened."
"I didn't see the tree eat the horse," said the fox, "because I was too busy watching flames shoot forth from the pond over there."
"But flames can't shoot forth from ponds," said the thief.
"No more than trees can eat horses," said the fox.
~ 54. The Tiger and the Fox ~
A tiger found a fox in a trap.
"What are you doing there?" he asked.
"I did this for you!" replied the fox. "I'm luring men here so you can eat them."
"How kind of you!" said the tiger, who went to wait in the bushes.
The hunters came and found the fox.
"I've lured the tiger here so you can kill him," said the fox. "He's there in the bushes."
"How kind of you!' said the hunters, who then let the fox go.
"Good luck, hunters!" shouted the fox as she ran off. "And good luck to you, tiger!"
~ 55. The Tiger and the Golden Bangle ~
An old tiger lived beside a pond.
When a traveler passed nearby, the tiger shouted, "Here! Take this golden bangle!"
The traveler was surprised by the tiger's words. "Show me the bangle!" he said.
The tiger showed him.
"But can I trust you?" asked the traveler.
"I'm old," said the tiger, "with no teeth and no claws. Before I die, I'm giving away my wealth. Come! Cross the pond and take the bangle."
When the man waded into the pond, he got stuck in the mud.
"I'll help you!" said the tiger.
So saying, the tiger pounced and devoured him.
~ 56. The Twin Parrots ~
A parrot gave birth to twins with identical green bodies, blue heads, red wings, and yellow tails. Bandits carried away one chick; a monk took the other.
A king rode through the forest one day. He passed the bandits' camp, and a parrot squawked, "Bind him! Kill him!" The king saw the parrot was green, blue, red, and yellow.
He then passed a hermitage. "Honor the king!" a parrot squawked.
"I saw a parrot just like you: green, blue, red, and yellow," said the king. "But he spoke differently."
"We were born as twins," replied the parrot, "but raised differently."
~ 57. The Captive Fawn ~
A prince went hunting and caught a fawn which he took home as a pet.
The fawn, however, was unhappy: he longed to return to the herd.
One day the fawn shouted, "Woe is me! What is this nightmare? Where's my herd?"
This terrified the prince. "A speaking fawn is an evil portent," he thought, so he summoned his magicians and wise men.
"Save me from this demon!" he pleaded.
"Just listen to the words," said one of the wise men, "and let the fawn go."
So the prince freed the fawn, and he was not troubled by portents again.
~ 58. The King and his Monkey ~
A king appointed a pet monkey to be his royal sword-bearer and bodyguard.
One day, the king went into the royal gardens. The day was hot, so the king decided to nap in the shade of a tree.
"Let no one disturb me!" he commanded the monkey.
After a while, a bumblebee flew by and landed on the king's nose. The monkey raised his sword and brought it down upon the offending insect, lest it disturb the king.
He killed the bee, but he also killed the king.
Thus a foolish friend is more dangerous than the most dangerous enemy.
~ 59. The Monkeys and the Gardener ~
The royal gardener wanted a vacation.
There were some monkeys living in the garden, so the gardener decided to put the monkeys in charge while he was gone.
“Make sure you water all the plants!” he told the monkeys.
“We should inspect the roots first," commanded the chief of the monkeys. "The deep roots need lots of water; the shallow roots not so much.”
So the monkeys inspected the roots carefully, pulling them up out of the ground to look at them.
The gardener came back from vacation to find all the plants were dead, uprooted by the foolish monkeys.
~ 60. Monkey See, Monkey Do ~
One day a monkey in a tree watched while the woodcutters worked.
When the woodcutters went to eat their lunch, he jumped down on the log where they were using wedges to split the wood.
"Why did they put this thing here?" he wondered. Monkeys are curious creatures, and this monkey was more curious than most.
So, the monkey grabbed the wedge and pulled it out... and then the log snapped shut on his privates! He was trapped, and it was all because of his own foolishness.
Learn from the monkey: do not meddle in things you know nothing about.
~ 61. The Monkey and the Sparrow ~
There was a sparrow who lived in a nest high up in a tree.
One day, she saw a monkey shivering at the foot of the tree.
"If you are cold," she said, "you should build a house!"
The monkey did not listen to her, but the sparrow kept giving him advice.
"I can tell you how to build a house!" she chirped.
"I have a very nice house!" she chirped more loudly.
"A house will keep you warm!" she kept on chirping.
Finally, the monkey got so angry that he climbed up the tree and destroyed the sparrow's house.
~ 62. The Wild Geese ~
Some wild geese lived in a tree.
The oldest goose noticed a vine growing up the tree. "We must tear down that vine before a human climbs it!" she said, but the young geese mocked her.
A hunter later climbed the tree and placed a snare there which trapped all the geese.
"Play dead!" said the old goose.
This time, the other geese did as she said.
The hunter found the birds all dead - or so he thought - and tossed them to the ground.
Then, as he was climbing down the tree, they all flew away to safety!
~ 63. The King of the Doves ~
A hunter spread a net on the ground, covering it with grain.
When doves rushed to eat the grain, their feet were caught. The more they thrashed, the more tightly they were trapped.
"Be calm!" said the dove-king. "Use your wings instead."
Together, the doves flapped their wings and rose up, carrying the net, while the hunter shouted at them angrily.
The doves then flew to the home of their friend: a mouse.
"Help us, mouse!" said the dove-king, and the mouse chewed through the knots and freed all the doves from the net.
The moral: Cooperate, and be kind.
~ 64. The Gadfly and the Lion ~
A gadfly found a lion sleeping in his den. She bit the lion's lip and drank his blood.
The lion awoke and grabbed the gadfly.
"Mercy!" begged the gadfly. "Let me go and I'll do you a favor someday."
The lion scoffed at the idea of a gadfly doing him a favor, but he let the creature go.
Some days later, the gadfly saw hunters creeping towards the lion's den. She once again bit the lion, waking him. "You must go," shouted the gadfly, "or else the hunters will trap you here!"
The lion thus escaped, thanks to a gadfly.
~ 65. Turtle, Deer, Mouse, and Crow ~
A turtle, deer, mouse, and crow were all friends.
One day a hunter caught the turtle and carried her away in a sack.
The mouse advised the deer to lie down in the hunter's path, pretending to be dead, while the crow pretended to peck at her dead body.
When the hunter saw the deer, he put down the sack, got out his knife and advanced towards the deer.
The mouse quickly gnawed a hole in the sack so the turtle escaped, while the crow flapped in the hunter's face till the deer got away.
The moral: Friendship is powerful.
~ 66. Deer, Crow, and Jackal ~
A deer and a crow lived as friends.
The deer then befriended a jackal. The crow, however, mistrusted the jackal.
The next day the jackal led the deer into a snare.
"Help!" yelled the deer.
The crow flew up and squawked so loudly that a hunter came running. "Pretend you're dead!" the crow whispered to the deer.
The deer lay down as if dead, and when the hunter freed her from the snare, she leaped up and ran off.
The hunter shot at the deer, but hit the jackal instead, killing him.
The deer no longer made friends with jackals.
~ 67. The Hunter and the Jackal ~
A hunter shot a deer and was carrying it home when he saw a boar. "I'll catch the boar too!"
The hunter shot the boar, but only wounded it.
The boar attacked, killing the hunter, and then died of its wounds.
When the boar fell, it happened to crush a snake to death.
A jackal strolled by.
"What a feast!" he exclaimed. "Human, deer, boar and snake! I don't want to miss out on anything edible. I can even eat the bowstring!"
But when the greedy jackal gnawed the bowstring, the bow snapped, struck the jackal and killed him too.
~ 68. The Goose and the Crow ~
A goose and a crow lived together in a tree.
One hot day, a hunter decided to rest beneath that tree.
As he slept, the sun moved, exposing his face, so the kindly goose shaded the man's face from the sun with her wings.
Meanwhile, the wicked crow pooped down on the man's face and then flew away, cackling with delight.
When the man awoke, he wiped away the poop and, looking up, he saw the goose.
"You cursed bird!" he shouted.
He then grabbed his gun and shot the goose dead.
The moral: Be careful what company you keep.
~ 69. The Monkey and the Goat ~
A wily monkey once stole a workman's rice and lentils.
After gobbling almost all the food, the monkey then set about laying the blame on someone else.
"The goat would make a likely culprit," the monkey thought to himself.
So the monkey fed the rest of the rice and lentils to the goat, making sure to smear food all over the goat's mouth and in his beard.
"Thank you, monkey!" said the gullible goat.
When the workman returned, he blamed the goat.
"You cursed beast!" he shouted as he beat the poor goat, while the monkey just laughed and laughed.
~ 70. The Louse and the Flea ~
There was once a louse who lived in the king's palace.
She grew fat sucking on the king's blood, but because she nibbled gently, the king never realized she was there.
It was a good life.
One day, a flea dropped in. "What a nice bed this is!" he said.
The louse protested. "The king will feel your unfamiliar bite. Go away!"
But the flea didn't go away, and he bit the king while he slept.
The king was furious, and he called his servants to come inspect the bed. The flea escaped, but the louse was caught and killed.
~ 71. The Turtle and the Peacock ~
A turtle saw a peacock dancing beside a pond.
"I want to dance with you," said the turtle.
The peacock looked at him doubtfully. "You're too slow, and you have no feathers to compare with mine."
"I'll surprise you," said the turtle, "for my shell is truly colorful and, though slow, I am graceful."
So the turtle danced with the peacock, and the peacock had to admire his lovely shell and steady pace.
A hunter, however, discovered them there.
The peacock flew to safety in a tree, but the hunter caught and killed the turtle before he reached the pond.
~ 72. The Turtle in the Lake ~
The princes shouted, "Father, we saw a terrible lake-monster!"
The king's guards went and caught the monster.
It was only a turtle, but the princes had never seen a turtle before and it frightened them.
"How shall we kill it?" the king asked.
"Crush it!" said the first prince.
"Burn it!" said the second.
"Drown it!" said the third.
Then the turtle shrieked, "Don't drown me! Crush me, burn me, but please don't drown me!"
"Drown the turtle!" the king commanded.
The guards threw the turtle into the lake.
The turtle shouted "Home at last!" as he happily swam away.
~ 73. The Turtle and the Two Birds ~
A turtle once befriended two birds, and the three friends lived together at a lake.
The lake was drying up, so the birds offered to carry the turtle away.
“You bite the middle of this stick, and we'll carry the ends in our beaks," they said. "But you must keep your mouth closed. Don't open your mouth, okay?”
“Okay!” the turtle said.
They soared into the sky: the plan worked!
But then people on the ground started laughing.
"That turtle looks ridiculous up there!" they said.
The turtle opened his mouth to rebuke them and thus plunged to his death.
~ 74. The Donkey and the Jackal ~
A farmer allowed his donkey to wander freely at night.
One night the donkey met a jackal and they became friends.
Together, they broke into a cucumber field and ate all the cucumbers they wanted.
Then the donkey decided to sing.
"Don't do that!" hissed the jackal.
But the donkey insisted on singing. "I have a lovely singing voice," he said. "You're just jealous!"
The jackal hid in the bushes and watched. The donkey sang very loudly, and finally the villagers came and cudgeled him to death.
"Music is all well and good," thought the jackal, "but silence is safer."
~ 75. The Donkey and the Tiger-Skin ~
There was a laundryman who had a donkey.
One day, the laundryman found a tiger-skin in the jungle and put the tiger-skin on his donkey.
"The farmers will be afraid of my tiger," he thought.
Wearing the tiger-skin, the donkey was able to graze in the barley-fields at night, getting fat on the farmers' barley.
But one night, the donkey heard the bray of a she-donkey, and he could not resist: he also started to bray!
The farmers realized this was not a tiger, but a donkey, so they beat the poor donkey and drove him away from their fields.
~ 76. The Donkey and the Watchdog ~
A thief came to rob a house.
The donkey said to the watchdog, "You should bark!"
"Our master treats us badly," said the dog. "Why should I bark?"
Since the dog wouldn't bark, the donkey brayed.
This scared the thief, but the master didn't know anything about that. Instead, he was furious that the donkey woke him up. In his rage, he beat the donkey so badly that the donkey died.
The dog shook his head sadly. "The donkey should have listened to me and kept his mouth shut."
The thief returned the next night.
The dog did not bark.
~ 77. The Brave Mongoose ~
A brahmin and his wife had a pet mongoose.
One day the woman went out.
"Watch the baby!" she told her husband.
Then the man went out.
"Watch the baby!' he told the mongoose.
Then... a snake came!
The brave mongoose killed the snake, overturning the baby's cradle in their struggle.
When the woman returned, she saw the overturned cradle and the mongoose covered in blood. Thinking it had killed her baby, she killed the mongoose.
Then she heard her baby crying and found the remains of the snake, and so she wept for the terrible mistake she had made.
~ 78. The Pilgrims and the Jewels ~
Three pilgrims found some jewels in the road.
"Let's eat them for safekeeping!" they said.
A beggar lurking nearby heard this. He joined their party, planning to cut them open that night.
But then a robber ambushed them.
"Jewels! Jewels!" squawked the robber's parrot.
The robber seized and stripped them. No jewels.
The parrot kept squawking, "Jewels!"
"I'll cut you open!" shouted the robber.
The beggar, racked by guilt for his wicked plan, shouted, "The parrot lies! Cut me first; you'll see!"
The robber cut him open.
No jewels.
So the robber let the pilgrims go ... and punished the parrot.
~ 79. The Bandit's Ghost ~
A bandit stole the village bell and fled to the hills where a tiger killed him. Whenever people heard the bell ringing, they whispered in fear, "It's the bandit's ghost!"
But it was only a monkey ringing the bell.
The village-chief offered a reward for anyone brave enough to defeat the ghost and retrieve the bell.
A wise woman guessed the truth.
"I can defeat the ghost!" she proclaimed.
She took no weapons, just fruit. She fed the fruit to the monkey, and thus she snatched the bell.
She returned to the village ringing the bell and claimed her reward.
~ 80. The Rats in the House ~
A foolish man saw there were rats in his house.
He was determined to destroy the rats, so he set his own house on fire.
His house burned down to the ground.
But the rats escaped by running to the house next door, so the man burned down that house too.
"You won't escape me, you rats!" he shouted.
But the rats just ran into the next house, so the man set that house on fire as well.
And the next. And the next.
Give him enough time and that fool will burn down all the houses in the world.
~ 81. The Rats and the Jackal ~
The Buddha was born as a rat, and there was a jackal who liked to eat rats.
To trick them, the jackal pretended to be a sadhu, gazing at the sun, standing on one leg, eating no food.
Each day the rats would run by the saintly jackal, and each day the jackal grabbed the last rat running by.
The Buddha suspected something was wrong, so he brought up the rear.
When the jackal tried to grab him, the Buddha shouted, “You evil hypocrite!” He jumped at the jackal’s throat and killed him, and the rats enjoyed a great feast.
~ 82. The Jackal in the Elephant ~
In another lifetime, the Buddha was again born as a jackal.
One day, this jackal found an elephant carcass.
“Food!” he shouted happily.
He gnawed the elephant's trunk; not much meat there.
The tusk was like bone.
The ear was tough.
The feet were hard as rocks.
Then the jackal crawled inside where the meat was soft to eat. He stayed in there for days.
Meanwhile, the summer heat made the carcass shrink.
The jackal couldn't get out. He was trapped!
Finally it rained.
As the carcass expanded again, he escaped.
“I'll never be so greedy again!” the Buddha vowed.
~ 83. The Jackal and the Corpse ~
The Buddha was again born as a jackal, and he made his home in the cremation fields amidst the corpses.
A wicked man who wanted to kill the jackal had gone there and lay on the ground, club in hand, pretending to be dead.
The jackal approached, but he suspected this man was not really dead.
He grabbed the club in his teeth and tugged. The man tightened his grip, and the jackal let go.
“Human, if you were dead, you wouldn’t have tightened your grip.”
The man then sprang up, but he was too late: the Buddha had escaped.
~ 84. The Jackal and the Lion ~
The Buddha was once born as a lion.
A jackal asked to be this lion's servant. The lion agreed, and the jackal grew fat eating food the lion killed.
As time went by, the jackal thought he was as strong and mighty as a lion. “I'm ready to kill an elephant on my own!” he boasted.
The lion warned him of the danger, but the jackal wouldn’t listen.
Then, when the jackal tried to bite an elephant’s foot, the elephant crushed the jackal to death.
“Foolish jackal,” said the Buddha, “you learned your limitations at the cost of your life.”
~ 85. The Deer and his Nephew ~
The Buddha was born as a deer.
The deer's sister said to her son, "Go to your uncle and learn the tricks you need to stay safe from hunters."
But the young deer didn't listen to his mother.
The Buddha said to him, "Nephew, there are things you must learn to stay safe. I will teach you."
But the young deer didn't listen to his uncle.
He then fell into a hunter's trap and was killed.
"Brother," said the Buddha's sister, weeping, "why didn't you teach him?"
"I couldn't teach him," said the Buddha, "because he didn't want to learn."
~ 86. The Two Oxen ~
The Buddha was born as an ox. His name was Big Red, and he had a brother named Little Red.
They lived on a farm together with other animals, including a pig.
The oxen worked hard, but the pig didn't work; the pig just ate.
And ate.
And ate.
Little Red was jealous, but Big Red told him, "That pig is eating the food of death; they are fattening him up for a wedding."
Big Red was right: when the wedding day came, that was the end of the pig, and Little Red recognized the wisdom of the Buddha's words.
~ 87. The Fish and the Crane ~
The Buddha was once born as a fish, and through his good actions he became the king of the fish.
There was a crane who wanted to eat the fish, so he pretended to be asleep. The other fish were fooled, but the Buddha realized that the crane was their deadly enemy.
"My fellow fish," the Buddha said, "we must drive this wicked creature away, and it will take all of us working together. One, two, three... SPLASH."
At the Buddha's command, the fish all started splashing at the crane until he finally flew away to look for food elsewhere.
~ 88. The Parrot and the Mangos ~
The Buddha was born as a parrot. He had a son. When he grew up, the son cared for his elderly father, bringing him food.
One day the son flew to an island full of mango trees. He brought back a mango.
"Beware, my son," said the parrot’s father. "That is too far; do not go to the mango island."
But the son did not listen. He flew again to the mango island, and then he grew so tired flying home that he fell into the ocean, and a fish ate him.
The Buddha waited, but his son never returned.
~ 89. The Woodpecker and the Lion ~
The Buddha was once born as a woodpecker.
One day this woodpecker saw a lion, groaning in pain.
“Help me, woodpecker!" shouted the lion. "Extract the bone stuck in my throat, and I’ll give you a reward!”
The woodpecker agreed, but he was cautious.
First, he propped the lion’s mouth open with a stick, and only then did he extract the bone.
After emerging from the lion’s mouth, he knocked away the stick.
“What’s my reward?” the woodpecker asked.
“Escaping my teeth is reward enough!” the lion snarled.
Thus the Buddha knew he was wise not to trust the lion.
~ 90. The Quail Chick ~
The Buddha was born as a tiny quail chick.
The chick lived in a nest, fed by his mother and father, and he could not fly yet.
Then one day, a huge fire swept through the forest, and the mother and father quail flew away in fear.
Because the quail chick could not fly, he summoned the power of his past Buddha lives and spoke forth. “In the name of Truth," shouted the little bird, "I defy you, Fire! Turn back now!”
And so the flames of the forest fire were extinguished by the miraculous power of the Buddha's words.
~ 91. The Quail and the Hunter ~
The Buddha was born as a quail.
A hunter caught the Buddha and his flock, and he put them in cages, feeding them well and fattening them to sell.
“If we don't eat, we'll grow thin," the Buddha thought, "and that might save us."
So he told the others, "Don't eat!"
But they ate the food and grew fat, and then the hunter sold them.
Meanwhile, the Buddha grew thin and lay motionless in the cage.
"Is it dead?" the hunter wondered.
He took the bird out to see what was wrong, and the Buddha jumped up and flew away.
~ 92. The Birds by the Lake ~
The Buddha was born as a bird, and he lived with other birds in a tree that stretched over a lake.
Some of the birds peed and pooped in the lake, and this made the great Naga-snake who lived in the lake angry.
The Naga made the waters of the lake boil, and he shot flames from his mouth into the branches of the tree.
“We must fly away!” said the Buddha, and the wise birds followed him to safety.
The foolish birds, however, stayed in the tree, peeing and pooping in the water, until they died in the flames.
~ 93. The Birds in the Tree ~
The Buddha was born as a bird and he lived together with a flock of birds in a mighty tree; the Buddha was the king of these birds.
The branches of the tree where the birds lived began to grind one against the other, producing sparks and smoke.
The king realized that this was the beginning of a fire, so he warned all the other birds. “We must fly away now!” he told them.
The wise birds listened, but the foolish birds ignored the Buddha's words.
The whole tree caught on fire, and the foolish birds perished in the flames.
~ 94. The Crow by the Highway ~
The Buddha was born as a bird and became their king.
There was a crow who hopped along the highway, eating the food that humans dropped there.
The bird-king warned all the birds that the human highway was dangerous, but the crow kept going there anyway, greedy for food.
One day as the crow was eating, she saw a caravan coming down the highway. “I’ll fly away soon!” she said, but she kept on eating... and so she was crushed under the wheels of a wagon.
“The highway is dangerous," said the Buddha, "but being greedy is even more dangerous."
~ 95. The Bird-King and the Peacock ~
The Buddha was again born as a bird, and again he became their king.
The bird-king had a daughter, and the time had come for her to choose a husband.
She liked the beautiful peacock most of all.
“I want the peacock to be my husband,” she said.
The peacock danced with excitement, and as he danced he exposed his private parts for all to see.
The birds were shocked!
The king of the birds said, “I can't let my daughter marry this bird. He is beautiful, but his dancing has led to disaster.”
The peacock flew away in shame.
~ 96. The Swan with the Golden Feathers ~
The Buddha was born as a man who had a wife and children.
When the man died, he was reborn as a swan with golden feathers.
The swan flew home and gave his wife a feather. “I'll return soon and give you more,” he promised.
But when he returned, his wife plucked all his feathers.
“Wicked woman, what have you done?” he cried, and the feathers in her hands became ordinary white swan feathers.
The wife threw the plucked swan into the garbage.
Then, when the Buddha's feathers grew back - white now, not golden - he flew away and never returned.
~ 97. The Drummer and the Bandits ~
The Buddha was born as a drummer, and his son was a drummer too.
Returning from a festival, they had to cross a forest full of bandits.
“I'll scare the bandits by beating the drum constantly,” said the boy.
“No!” said the Buddha. “Just beat the drum slowly now and then, like the drummer for a great lord.”
At the first drumbeats, the bandits fled, but when the son kept on drumming, they became curious. Then, when they saw a father and son traveling alone, they attacked and robbed them.
Too much, even of a good thing, is not good.
~ 98. The Monk and his Snake ~
There was once a Buddhist monk who had adopted a poisonous snake, keeping the snake in a cage like a pet.
The Buddha warned this monk that the snake couldn't be trusted, but the monk did not listen.
“I can't live without my snake friend,” he said.
One day the monk went to feed his snake. “Come here, my dear snake,” he said as he opened the cage. "I have food for you!"
Hunger had made the snake impatient, and it bit the monk on the hand.
Thus the foolish monk died, and the snake slithered away into the forest.
~ 99. The Buddha and the Mantra ~
The Buddha had taught one of his young disciples a mantra for bringing the dead to life.
"Use it carefully," the Buddha warned him.
Later on, the young man, together with some other disciples, went into the jungle. There they found a dead tiger.
"I will bring this dead tiger to life!" the disciple shouted, and then he spoke the mantra.
A living tiger sprang up, killed the young disciple, and ran off.
The other disciples returned to the Buddha and told him what had happened.
"Before people do favors for villains," the Buddha said, "they should consider the outcome."
~ 100. The Three Friends and the Tiger ~
There were three friends making their way through a jungle when they were attacked by a tiger.
The first friend shouted, "We are lost!"
The second friend shouted, "God, please save us!"
The third friend shouted, "We need to climb a tree!"
Here is what you need to understand about these three men.
The first man did not know God at all.
The second man was a seeker of God.
The third man had an ecstatic and complete love of God. His goal was not to save himself from the tiger, but to spare his beloved any trouble or worry.