"No longer can he take a morsel even,"--This the
Master told when at Jetavana about an old monk and a
lay convert.
At Savatthi, the story goes, there were two friends.
One of them, entered the Order, and went every day to
get his meal at the house of the other. The other gave
him to eat, and ate himself; and went back with him
to the monastery, sat there chatting and talking with him
till sunset, and then returned to the city. The other,
again, used to accompany him to the city gate, and then
turn back. And the close friendship between them became common talk among the brethren.
Now one day the monks sat talking in the Lecture Hall
about their intimacy. When the Teacher came, he asked
them what they were talking about, and they told him.
Then he said, "Not now only, O mendicants, have these
been close allies; they were so also in a former birth."
And he told a tale.
"Long ago, when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares,
the Bodhisattva became his minister.
"At that time a dog used to go to the state elephant's
stable, and feed on the lumps of rice which fell where the
elephant fed. Being attracted there by the food, he soon
became great friends with the elephant, and used to eat
close by him. At last neither of them was happy without
the other; and the dog used to amuse himself by catching
hold of the elephant's trunk, and swinging to and fro.
"But one day there came a peasant who gave the
elephant-keeper money for the dog, and took it back with
him to his village. From that time the elephant, missing
the dog, would neither eat nor drink nor bathe. And they
let the king know about it.
"He sent the Bodhisattva, saying, 'Do you go, Pandit, and
find out what's the cause of the elephant's behavior.'
"So he went to the stable, and seeing how sad the elephant looked, said to himself, 'There seems to be nothing
bodily the matter with him. He must be so overwhelmed
with grief by missing some one, I should think, who had
become near and dear to him.' And he asked the elephant-keepers, 'Is there any one with whom he is
particularly intimate?'
"'Certainly, Sir! There was a dog of whom he was
very fond indeed!'
"'Where is it now?'
"'Some man or other took it away.'
"'Do you know where the man lives?'
"'No, Sir!'
"Then the Bodhisattva went and told the king, 'There's
nothing the matter with the elephant, your majesty; but
he was great friends with a dog, and I fancy it's through
missing it that he refuses his food.'
And so saying, he uttered the stanza:
"'No longer can he take a morsel even
"When the king heard what he said, he asked what was
now to be done.
"'Have a proclamation made, O king, to this effect:
"A man is said to have taken away a dog of whom our
state elephant was fond. In whose house soever that dog
shall be found, he shall be fined so much!"'
"The king did so; and as soon as he heard of it, the
man turned the dog loose. The dog hastened back, and
went close up to the elephant. The elephant took him up
in his trunk, and placed him on his forehead, and wept
and cried, and took him down again, and watched him
as he fed. And then he took his own food.
"Then the king paid great honor to the Bodhisattva for
knowing the motives even of animals."
When the Teacher had finished this discourse, and had
enlarged upon the Four Truths, he made the connection
and summed up the Jataka, "He who at that time was
the dog was the lay convert, the elephant was the old
monk, but the minister pandit was I myself."