151 Jataka Tales

Once, a deer lived deep in the jungle. But he was no ordinary deer, for he was very strong and wise, and spoke like a human. One day, a king, who was hunting, saw this deer. The deer saw the king aiming his bow and arrow at him. He started running. The king followed him […]

Once, an ape lived in a forest. He was very kind and virtuous. One day, a shepherd lost his way and reached the forest. While finding his way out of the forest, he fell into a deep pit. The ape saw this and rescued him. But in the process, the ape got weary. He fell

A drummer and his son went to a fair to earn money by playing their drums. They earned a lot of money and were greatly applauded. While returning home, they had to cross a forest. Now, many thieves dwelled in that forest. The boy thought, ‘I will beat the drums to scare the thieves.’ He

Once, a priest decided to sacrifice a goat. He thought God would be pleased. When the priest was about to sacrifice the goat, it started laughing and crying at the same time. The priest was baffled. He asked the goat the reason for this strange behaviour. The goat replied, “Many births ago, I was a

Long ago, some merchants were on a voyage. Suddenly, a great storm brewed up in the sea. It tossed the ship from left to right. The ship could not withstand the storm and sank. The merchants struggled in the water to stay alive. A turtle saw them struggling. He decided to help them. He went

An ascetic lived in a mango grove near a river. But he had no qualities of an ascetic. He was very selfish and greedy. His main aim was to protect the mangoes and eat them. God saw the doings of the ascetic. So, he decided to teach him a lesson. One day, when the ascetic

Some men went to the forest for a picnic in the afternoon. But the walk to the forest was very tiring. So, they hurriedly ate up everything they had brought. After that, they all went off to sleep. It was dusk when they got up. All of them started feeling hungry again. One of them

A woman had a pet cat but she was very lean as the woman was poor and gave little food to the cat. One day, the lean cat saw a healthy stray cat passing by. She was surprised to see such a healthy cat. She asked her, “How it so happened are so well fed?”

Once, a sage and his disciple were going through the forest. They chanced to see a tigress. She was going to kill her own cubs out of hunger. The sage was saddened to see this. He decided to sacrifice himself. He sent his disciple to get some food lest he should object to the sage’s

Once, there were two friends – a lion and a tiger. They lived happily together. Not far from where they lived, dwelt a hermit. One day, the two friends got into a silly argument. The tiger said, “It becomes cold when the moon decreases from full to new.” The lion replied, “No. It becomes cold

A rich man had a bird house in which there lived a pigeon. The pigeon never entered the rich man’s kitchen, for the cook was very cruel. One day, a crow smelled the delicious food being cooked in the rich man’s kitchen. He decided to befriend the pigeon, and thereby, enter the rich man’s kitchen.

Long ago, Lord Buddha used to give sermons to his disciples in a monastery. One day, one of his disciples, who was coming to the monastery to hear his sermons, got late. On the way, he had to cross a river. But due to being late, he missed the boat. The disciple was so engrossed

In a forest, there lived some quails. One day, one of the quails laid some eggs. The quails came to know that an elephant was on a rampage in that area. Soon, the elephant came to the place where the quails lived. The mother quail begged the elephant, “Please spare my young ones!” But the

Once, a rich man’s wife was reborn as a mouse. She was so attached to her riches that even after becoming a mouse, she kept all the treasure near her. Now, there was a stone-cutter. The mouse became his friend. The mouse gave him some money to buy food. From then on, the stone-cutter bought

Have you ever noticed the full moon? Well, we can see a mark on the moon which looks like a hare. Here is an interesting story about it. Once, a hare had three friends – a monkey, an otter and a jackal. One day, the hare said to his friends, “Let us do some charity.