Near the Western Ocean many palm trees grew and there was a small wood of vilva trees too. The Bodhisatta had been born in the forest and had grown into a big, wise lion.
Under a vilva tree, there lived a timid little hare. One day as he slept, a vilva fruit fell on him. He jumped up, startled. “The world is coming to an end!” he was sure and, frightened out of his wits, he ran.
Other animals lived in the woods and saw the hare scampering at top speed towards the mountain near the ocean. “What happened?” they asked. “The world is coming to an end,” shouted the hare, without stopping. The others heard and were terrified too. One by one, they all began to run after him, hundreds of hares and deer, boars and elephants, tigers, rhinoceroses, wild oxen and even lions. They thundered through the forest, running in complete panic.
The Bodhisatta heard them running and the shouts of, “The world is coming to an end!”
“What rubbish!” he thought, “The world is not coming to an end! I must find out how this started.” With great speed he overtook the crowd and reached the mountain beside the ocean ahead of the others. He roared loudly and the fleeing animals stopped in their tracks.
“Who saw the earth ending?” he asked. The animals pointed to one another. They said the elephants told them; the elephants pointed to the tigers, who said it was the oxen who told them. The lion kept asking each group: the oxen and the buffaloes, the boars and the bears, the deer and the foxes, till he came to the hares. Finally, they pointed to the frightened little hare who had started off the stampede.
“What did you see? And where?” asked the lion.
“Sir, I was sleeping under the vilva tree as usual, when I heard the sound of the earth breaking up,” said the hare, “And I ran!”
“Let’s go and have a look at this place, shall we?” he said and, putting the hare on his back, he took off for the grove of palm and vilva trees.
When they reached there, the little fellow was so scared that he pointed out the tree from a distance. The lion went closer and looked around carefully. He saw the vilva fruit that had fallen on a palm leaf. That must have been the sound the hare heard!
He went back and told the others what had happened, adding “Don’t listen to idle talk.”
