151 Jataka Tales

A king had a wise minister who understood the language of animals. One day, while walking on the beach, he saw a big fish with his pretty wife. The male fish was so enchanted by his wife that he did not see some fishermen casting a net on him. Alas! He was caught. The minister […]

A prince was very virtuous. Once, while he was walking in his garden, a demon attacked and abducted the prince. Though captured, the prince was not afraid of the demon. The demon was surprised to see this. He asked the prince, “Are you not afraid of me?” The prince replied, “No. I am ready for

Two merchants were friends. Both were going to sell their goods. They decided to travel one after the other. The first merchant set off with his servants. On the way, they came to a place which was haunted by demons. As soon as the merchant camped there, the demons came disguised as men. They became

Once, there was a rich man. He gave up all the riches and became a holy man. Soon, he had many followers. With the passage of time, he attained great powers. One day, the holy man was on the verge of dying. One of his followers asked him, “Sir! What has been your greatest achievement

A rich man became an ascetic and lived in a forest. Once, he came across a baby elephant. He instantly bonded with the baby elephant. He took it to his hermitage. From then on, he started taking care of the elephant. He fed it every day. One day, the ascetic was away for some work.

Once, there was a king named Vikram. He had three friends – Nanda, Bhoj and Dhanu – and a wise minister called Soma. Once, all friends got into a discussion and could not find a solution. Soma found a solution for them. All the friends were impressed by him. King Nanda told his wife about

Once, two traders, Ram and Shyam, were friends. One day, Ram went on a business trip and kept his plough at Shyam’s house. Shyam sold the plough and kept the money. When Ram came back to get his plough, Shyam said, “The mice have eaten your plough.” Ram was surprised at this strange answer. That

A king used to hunt deer. Many deer died due to this. One day, the deer king came to the king and said, “Sir! Many of my deer are dying every day. To stop this, we will send you one deer every day.” The king agreed. He was also very impressed by the deer king

A king had a loyal servant. His job was to set a price for anything the king wanted to buy or sell. But this man would buy things at very low prices and sell them at high prices. Once, a merchant sold 500 horses. The price the servant gave was only a cup of rice

King Pratap was the ruler of a big kingdom. He had a wife and a son. One day, his kingdom was attacked by King Brij. He killed King Pratap and forcefully made the queen his own wife. Luckily, the son (prince) escaped. When the prince grew up, he raised a large army to attack King

Once, there was a prince. He was very brave. One day, while going through the forest, he came face to face with a monster. The monster growled, “I am going to eat you up!” The prince said, “I will kill you with my weapons.” The prince fought very hard. The monster was surprised. He found

Once there was an ascetic. He lived on the Himalayas near a lake. One day, he was bathing in the lake. Suddenly, a water nymph came out of the lake and saw him. She immediately fell in love with him. She thought, ‘Why is such a handsome man leading such a hard life? He should

A king got a lake made for his children to play in with some fish in it. The excited children rushed off to see the fish. Now, among the fish was a turtle as well. The children not having seen a turtle before thought it to be a monster. They told the king that there

Two gamblers gambled every day. One was honest but the other was a cheat. He played as long as he won. When he began to lose, he would secretly put one of the dice in his mouth and claim that it was lost. Then he would stop the game. The honest gambler saw this happening

Once, a sage came to a village. A rich man gave him a place to stay. Now, the rich man had a lot of gold. He was scared of thieves. So, he kept the gold under the sage’s care. After a few days, the sage came to the merchant and said, “I have spent enough