{"collection":"Buddhism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/bud/j3/j3095.htm","path":"bud/j3/j3095.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/bud/j3/j3095.htm","text":"The Jataka, Vol. III, tr. by H.T. Francis and R.A. Neil, [1897]\n\"Oil and butter,\" etc.\u2014The Master told this while dwelling in Jetavana, concerning a greedy Brother. Finding that he was greedy the Master said to him, \"This is not the first time you are greedy: once before through greed in Benares you were not satisfied with carcases of elephants, oxen, horses and men; and in hopes of getting better food you went to the forest;\" and so he told an old tale.\nOnce upon a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, the Bodhisatta was born as a quail and lived in the forest on rude grass and seeds. At the time there was in Benares a greedy crow who, not content with carcases of elephants and other animals, went to the forest in hopes of better food: eating wild fruits there he saw the Bodhisatta and thinking \"This quail is very fat: I fancy he eats sweet food, I will ask\nhim of his food and eating it become fat myself,\" he perched on a bough above the Bodhisatta. The Bodhisatta [313], without being asked, gave him greeting and spoke the first stanza:\u2014\n Tell me then what is the reason of your leanness, master crow.\nHearing his words the crow spoke three stanzas:\u2014\nCrows spend their lives in fear, their wits for mischief ever keen; Rude grass and seeds are all your food: there's little richness there:\n In terror as I seek my food: how can a crow be fat? \n \n The bits they pick are not enough; good quail, that's why I'm lean.\n Then tell me why you're fat, good quail, on such a scanty fare.\nThe Bodhisatta hearing him spoke these stanzas, explaining the reason of his fatness:\u2014\nContent of mind, and happiness with little care of heart,\n I live on anything I get, and so I'm fat, good crow. \n \n A standard easily attained: that life's the better part.\n[314] After the lesson, the Master declared the Truths, and identified the Birth:\u2014At the end of the Truths the Brother was established in the fruition of the First Path: \"At that time the crow was the greedy Brother, the quail was myself.\"","title":"The Jataka, Vol. III: No. 394.: Va\u1e6d\u1e6daka-J...","type":"page"}