{"collection":"Buddhism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/bud/j3/j3096.htm","path":"bud/j3/j3096.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/bud/j3/j3096.htm","text":"The Jataka, Vol. III, tr. by H.T. Francis and R.A. Neil, [1897]\n\"Our old friend,\" etc.\u2014The Master told this tale while dwelling in Jetavana, concerning a greedy Brother. The occasion is as above.\nOnce upon a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, the Bodhisatta was a pigeon and lived in a nest-basket in the kitchen of a\n[paragraph continues] Benares merchant. A crow became intimate with him and lived there also. Here the story is to be expanded. The cook pulled out the crow's feathers and sprinkled him with flour, then piercing a cowrie he hung it on the crow's neck and threw him into a basket. The Bodhisatta came from the wood, and seeing him made a jest and spoke the first stanza:\u2014\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A jewel bright he wears;\n His beard in gallant trim,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0How gay our friend appears!\n[315] The crow hearing him spoke the second stanza:\u2014\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0They hampered me in all I did:\n A barber came along at last,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And of superfluous hair I'm rid.\nThen the Bodhisatta spoke the third stanza:\u2014\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Who has cropped your hair so well:\n Round your neck, will you explain,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0What's that tinkling like a bell?\nThen the crow uttered two stanzas:\u2014\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Round the neck: it's often done:\n I am imitating them:\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Don't suppose it's just for fun.\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Of my beard that's trimmed so true:\n I can get you barbered thus;\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0You may have the jewel too.\nThe Bodhisatta hearing him spoke the sixth stanza:\u2014\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Gem and beard that's trimmed so true.\n I find your presence troublesome:\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I go with a good-day to you.\n[316] With these words he flew up and went elsewhere; and the crow died then and there.\nAfter the lesson, the Master declared the Truths and identified the Birth:\u2014After the Truths, the greedy Brother was established in the fruition of the Third Path: \"At that time the crow was the greedy Brother, the pigeon was myself.\"\n195:1 Cf. no. 42, vol. i.; no. 274, vol. ii.","title":"The Jataka, Vol. III: No. 395.: K\u0101ka-J\u0101taka.","type":"page"}