The Ass in the Lion's Skin

Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta was reigning in
Benares, the Bodhisatta was born in a farmer's family,
and when he grew up he got a livelihood by tillage.

At the same time there was a Merchant who used to
go about hawking goods, which a donkey carried for him.
Wherever he went, he used to take his bundle off the ass,
and throw a lionskin over him, and then turn him loose
in the rice and barley fields. When the watchmen saw
this creature, they imagined him to be a lion, and so
durst not come near him.

One day this hawker stopped at a certain village, and
while he was getting his own breakfast cooked, he turned
the ass loose in a barley field with the lionskin on. The
watchmen thought it was a lion, and durst not come near,
but fled home and gave the alarm. All the villagers
armed themselves, and hurried to the field, shouting and
blowing on conchs and beating drums. The ass was
frightened out of his wits, and gave a hee-haw ! Then the
Bodhisatta, seeing that it was a donkey, repeated the first
stanza :

Nor lion nor tiger I see,

Not even a panther is he:

But a donkey the wretched old hack!

With a liouskin over his back!

As soon as the villagers learnt that it was only an ass,
they cudgelled him till they broke his bones, and then went
off* with the lionskin. When the Merchant appeared, and
found that his ass had come to grief, he repeated the
second stanza:

The donkey, if he had been wise,
Might long 1 the green barley have eaten;
A lionskin was his disguise:
But he gave a hee-haw, and got beaten!

As he was in the act of uttering these words, the ass
expired. The Merchant left him, and went his way.