The Monkey Bridge
A troop of monkeys protected a mango tree so that the fruits would not fall into the Ganges River and wash downstream to Benares - a town on the Ganges. Eventually, a fruit fell into the stream, and King Brahmattan ate the fruit and wanted to find the source. The king and his men went upstream until they found the tree, and they surrounded it to kill the monkeys the next morning so they could have the fruit to themselves. Then, the monkey chief jumped across the river to another tree, grabbed a reed, and jumped back to the mango tree. Thus, a bridge was formed. The chief then allowed his troop of 80,000 monkeys to travel across the river to safety. However, the chief's back was eventually broken by a monkey, and the monkey chief was brought to the ground by the king who was amazed by the selflessness of the chief. The chief gave an emotional speech about loving those who you rule over and then passed away.
The Guilty Dogs
The king's palace had chariots with leather straps and harnesses that got left out during a rainstorm. During the night, the dogs of the palace snuck out and chewed up the leather. The king ordered for all of the town's 700 dogs to be killed for chewing the leather. The dog chief hears of this and goes to talk to the king. The chief walks with such calmness that he is allowed into the palace unharmed. He then tells the king that it had to have been the palace dogs and told the king to feed the dogs some kusa grass and buttermilk to make them throw up the leather. The strategy worked, and the town dogs were then treated very well with great meals following the incident.
| A pack of retrievers. Image Source: PxHere |
The Master's Test
A master was old, poor, and weak. He had no money to buy food with, and he developed a plan to teach his students a lesson. The old man asked his students to go into town and steal money from the wealthy. He said to do no harm to the people but steal the money. He said to only steal where no one was watching. All of the pupils but one left to go follow their master's task. The master asked the student why he didn't leave. The student replied that no matter where he went, he would always be watching himself. And the student did not want to disappoint himself by stealing from men. The master then told the rest of the pupils that is the lesson he intended to teach.
Bibliography
"Twenty Jataka Tales". Retold by Noor Inayat. Found Online at this link
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