151 Jataka Tales

Once, a hermit and his disciples were the guests of a king. After some days, the hermit decided to go back to his hermitage. The king requested him to extend his stay. The ascetic accepted but the disciples went back. One day, the chief disciple came back to pay homage to the hermit. He did […]

King Vessantara was very famous for his generosity. When he was a baby, a young white elephant had been brought to the palace. The prince and the elephant grew up together. Many people said that the kingdom was prosperous because of the presence of the white elephant. One day, Vessantara lent the elephant to the

Once, an ascetic was taking a walk in the city when he saw something strange. He saw a Brahmin running very fast with a very expensive piece of cloth in his hand. The ascetic asked him, “My dear friend! Where are you going in such a hurry?” The Brahmin replied, “Sir! I am going to

Once, a teacher had a disciple who was from the countryside. He fell in love with a city girl and married her. But after some days, the disciple found out that his wife was very moody. When she was in a good mood, she was very sweet to him but when she was in a

Once, in a certain kingdom, people were immoral. There was chaos everywhere. Thieves grew in number. Well, the king too had strayed from his path. Now, God was watching all this from heaven. He disliked what he saw. He wanted to teach those people a lesson. So, he disguised himself as a forester and took

Once upon a time, a rich man was famous for his generosity. In those days, a sage was meditating in the forest. While meditating, he remained without eating or drinking. When he returned to his ordinary state, he was in danger of dying from starvation. So, he went to the rich man to get food.

Once, a man became an ascetic. His wife happily accompanied him wherever he went. Many years passed by. One day, a king was passing by where they lived. He was attracted to the ascetic’s wife. The king thought of carrying her away. But first, he wanted to know what the ascetic would do if he

There was a rich man. This rich man was very generous. He used to give alms to the poor. Nobody returned empty-handed from his doorstep. He became very famous because of his generous ways. The gods were seeing everything. They were very impressed by the rich man and his ways. But the king of gods

A prince was very kind and generous. He always used to distribute his wealth among the poor people. One day, he decided to get more wealth. Now, he had heard about a gem which could fulfil everyone’s wishes. It was in a faraway land. The prince set off to get the gem. It was a

A certain merchant was leading his caravan to another country to sell his goods. Along the way, they came to a hot desert. It was so hot that the merchant’s men started fainting. There was no water left. Some men started crying out of desperation. The merchant thought, ‘I must not give up. If I

There was a famous teacher. He had many students. Among them was a student named Bhanu. He was not a good student. He was very disobedient. Bhanu never paid attention to what his teacher said. His main aim was to eat food and fight with his fellow students. The teacher was fed up of Bhanu

A king had three sons. The first two were from his previous queen. The stepmother wanted the king to make her son the king, but he refused. The king was scared that the queen would harm his sons, so he told them to live in the forest until his death. As they were going out

A king of pigeons used to visit a hermit every day and listen to his sermons. One day, the hermit left his hut and went away forever. Many days later, a fake hermit came to live in the same hut. He was very fond of pigeon meat. One day, he saw a flock of pigeons

There was a rich man who had a son. When the son grew up, he gave up his home and became an ascetic. He achieved great powers through meditation. Slowly, he obtained a large number of disciples. There were times when the ascetic would risk his life for the sake of his people. Once, a

Two brothers were saints. Now, there was a serpent king. He had a wish-fulfilling gem and could assume any form. One day, he changed into a human and came to the hermitage of the brothers. He met the younger brother and became his friend. After that, he visited the brother frequently. One day, the serpent