The Greedy Jackal Caught

Once on a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in
Benares, the Bodhisatta was re-born into life as a jackal
and dwelt iu the forest by the river-side. Now an old
elephant died by the banks of the Ganges, and the jackal,
finding the carcass, congratulated himself on lighting upon
such a store of meat. First he bit the trunk, but that was
like biting a plough-handle. "There's no eating here,"
said the jackal and took a bite at a tusk. But that was
like biting bones. Then he tried an ear, but that was like
chewing the rim of a winnowing-basket. So he fell to on
the stomach, but found it as tough as a grain-basket. The
feet were no better, for they were like a mortar. Next he
tried the tail, but that was like the pestle. "That won't
do either," said the jackal ; and having failed elsewhere to
find a toothsome part, he tried the rear and found that
like eating a soft cake. " At last," said he, " I've found the
right place,'' and ate his way right into the belly, where he
made a plenteous meal off the kidneys, heart and the rest,
quenching his thirst with the blood. And when night
came on, he lay down inside. As he lay there, the thought
came into the jackal's mind, " This carcass is both meat
and house to me, and wherefore should I leave it ? ' So
there he stopped, and dwelt in the elephant's inwards,
eating away. Time wore on till the summer sun and the
summer winds dried and shrank the elephant's hide,
until the entrance by which the jackal had got in was
closed and the interior was in utter darkness. Thus the
jackal was, as it were, cut off from the world and confined
in the interspace between the worlds. After the hide, the
flesh dried up and the blood was exhausted. In a frenzy
of despair, he rushed to and fro beating against his prison
walls in the fruitless endeavour to escape. But as he
bobbed up and down inside like a ball of rice in a boil-
ing saucepan, soon a tempest broke and the downpour
moistened the shell of the carcass and restored it to its
former state, till light shone like a star through the way
by which the jackal had got in. " Saved ! saved ! ' cried
the jackal, and, backing into the elephant's head made a
rush head-first at the outlet. He managed to get through,
it is true, but only by leaving all his hair on the way. And
first he ran, then he halted, and then sat down and sur-
veyed his hairless body, now smooth as a palm-stem.
"Ah!" he exclaimed, "this misfortune has befallen me
because of my greed and my greed alone. Henceforth I
will not be greedy nor ever again get into the carcass of an
elephant." And his terror found expression in this stanza:

Once bitten, twice shy. Ah, great was iny fear!
Of elephants' inwards henceforth I'll steer clear.

And with these words the jackal made oft", nor did he
ever again so much as look either at that or at any other
elephant's carcass. And thenceforth he was never greedy
again.