| J.107 |
Saalittaka Jaataka |
The king of Benares once had a very talkative chaplain. Outside the city gates was
a cripple who lived under a banyan tree, so clever that he could cut the leaves of
trees to various shapes just by throwing stones at them. Seeing him, the king engaged
his services to cure his chaplain. The cripple obtained a peashooter filled with
goatís dung and, sitting behind a curtain with a hole in it, shot pellets of dung
into the mouth of the chaplain as he talked away ceaselessly. When half a peck of
dung had thus been shot, the king revealed the plot to the chaplain and prescribed
an emetic. The chaplain realized his folly and did not offend again. The cripple
was given the revenue of four villages, bringing 4,000 per year. The story was told
in reference to a novice on the banks of the Aciravati who, challenged by his companions,
shot a pebble through the eye of a swan in flight, the pebble emerging through the
other eye. The bodhisatva was one of the kingís courtiers. |
56/409 |
Jaataka |
Khuddhaka |
J.i.418ff. |
idle chatter, resourcefulness |