Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta was king of Benares, the Bodhisatta became a Monkey named Nandiya, or Jolly; and lived in the Himalayas; and his youngest brother bore the name of Jollikin. They two headed a band of eighty thousand monkeys, and they had a blind mother in their home to care for.

They left their mother in her lair in the bushes, and went amongst the trees to find sweet wild fruit, which they sent back home to her. The messengers did not deliver it; and, tormented with hunger, she became nothing but skin and bone. The Bodhisatta said to her, “Mother, we send you plenty of sweet fruits; then what makes you so thin?”

“My son, I never get it!”

The Bodhisatta pondered. “While I look after my herd, my mother will perish! I will leave the herd, and look after my mother alone.” So he called his brother and said, “Brother! you tend the herd, and I will care for our mother.”

He replied, “No! Brother! What I am not for ruling a herd? I too will care for our mother!” So the two of them leaving the herd, they brought their mother down out of Himalayas, and took up their abode in a banyan tree of the border land, where they took care of her.

Now a Brahmin, who lived at Takkasila, had received his education from a famous teacher, and afterward he was about to return home. He said, “My son! you are harsh, cruel and violent. Such persons do not prosper at all seasons alike; they come to dire woe and destruction. Do not be harsh. If not You will repent.” With this counsel, he asked him to go.

The youth took leave of his teacher, and went his way to Benares. There he married and settled down; and not being able to earn a livelihood by any other of his arts, he determined to live by his bow. So he decided to work as a huntsman; and left Benares to earn his living. Dwelling in a border village, he would range the woods with bow and quiver, and lived by sale of the flesh of all manner of beasts which he killed.

One day, after having caught nothing at all in the forest, as he was returning home he saw a banyan tree. He thought, “Perhaps there may be something here.” He saw two brothers had just fed their mother with fruits, and were sitting behind her in the tree. When they saw the man they hid amongst the branches. Then this cruel man, as he came up to the tree and saw the mother monkey weak with age, and blind, thought to himself, “Why should I return empty handed? I will shoot this she monkey first!” and lifted up his bow to shoot her. The Bodhisatta saw this, and said to his brother, “Jollikin! This man wants to shoot our mother! I will save her life. When I am dead, do you take care of her.” So saying, down he came out of the tree, and called out,

The Bodhisatta called him and said, “O! man! don’t shoot my mother! She is blind, and weak for age. I will save her life; don’t kill her, but kill me instead!” and when the other had promised, he sat down in a place within bowshot. The hunter pitilessly shot the Bodhisatta; when he dropped, the man prepared his bow to shoot the mother monkey. Jollikin saw this, and thought to himself, “This hunter wants to shoot my mother. Even if she only lives a day, she will have received the gift of life; I will give my life for hers.” Accordingly, down he came from the tree, and said, “O! Man! Don’t shoot my mother! I give my life for hers. Shoot me take both us brothers, and spare our mother’s life!” The hunter consented, and Jollikin squatted down within bowshot. The hunter shot this one too, and killed him. Hunter thought, “It will do for my children at home” and he shot the mother too; hung them all three on his carrying pole, and returned home. At that moment a thunderbolt fell upon the house of this wicked man, and burnt up his wife and two children with the house; nothing was left but the roof and the bamboo uprights.

A man met him at the entering in of the village, and told him of it. With sorrow he dropped his pole with the monkeys, and his bow, and he went homewards, wailing with hands outstretched. Then the bamboo uprights broke, and fell upon his head, and crushed him. The earth yawned, flame rose from hell. As he was being swallowed up in the earth, he thought upon his master’s warning; “Then this was the teaching that the Brahmin Parasariya gave me!” and lamenting he uttered:-

“I call to mind my teacher’s words; so this was what he meant!

Be careful you should nothing do of which you might repent.

Whatever a man does, the same he in himself will find;

The good man, good; and evil he that evil has designed;

And so our deeds are all like seeds, and bring forth fruit in kind.”

Lamenting thus, he went down into the earth, and came to life in the depths of hell.