Once upon a time at Takkasila in the land of Gandhara, there was a king reigning there, and the Bodhisatta came to life as a bull. When he was quite a tiny calf, he was presented by his owners to a brahmin. The brahmin called it Nandi – Visala (Great Joy), and treated it like his own child, feeding the young creature on rice-gruel and rice. When the Bodhisatta grew up, he thought to himself, “I have been brought up by this brahmin with great pains. How can I repay the brahmin the cost of my nurture by making proof of my strength?” Accordingly, one day he said to the brahmin “Go brahmin! Go to some merchant and wager him a thousand pieces that your bull can draw a hundred loaded carts.” The brahmin went to a merchant and got into a discussion with him as to whose oxen in the town were the strong. The merchant said,“Oh, so-and-so’s oxen is strongest.” The brahmin said, “I have a bull who can pull a hundred loaded carts.”

The merchant laughed, “Where’s such a bull to be found?”

The brahmin said,“I’ve got him at home.” The merchant said,“Make it a wager.”

The brahmin accepted and staked a thousand pieces. Then he loaded a hundred carts with sand, gravel, and stones, and tied them one behind the other. Once this done, Brahmin bathed Nandi-Visala, gave him a measure of perfumed rice to eat, hung a garland round his neck, and harnessed him all alone to the leading cart. The brahmin in person took his seat upon the pole, and flourished his goad in the air, shouting, “Come on! Rascal! Pull them along!”

The Bodhisatta to himself: “I’m not the rascal he calls me.” So he planted his four feet like so many posts, and budged not an inch.

Straightway, the merchant made the brahmin pay over the thousand pieces. After loosing money, the brahmin took his bull out of the cart and went home. He fell into bed in an agony of grief. When Nandi-Visala strolled in and found the brahmin a prey to such grief, he went up to him and enquired if the brahmin were taking a nap. “How should I be taking a nap, when I have had a thousand pieces won of me?” Brahmin, all the time I have lived in your house, have I ever broken a pot, or squeezed up against anybody, or made messes about?”

“Never, my child.”

“Then, why did you call me a rascal? Leave it. Now go to the merchant and lay a wager of two thousand coins. I will make good the loss.”

Just as before, he leashed the hundred carts to one another and harnessed Nandi-Visala. Now seated on the pole, the Brahmin stroked Nandi-Visala on the back, and called on him in this style, “Now; my fine fellow! Pull them along, my fine fellow!” With a single pull the Bodhisatta tugged along the whole string of the hundred carts till the last cart reached the place where the first cart was parked. The merchant paid up the two thousand pieces he had lost to the Brahmin. Other folks, too gave large sums to the Bodhisatta, and the whole passed into the hands of the Brahmin. Thus did he gain greatly by reason of the Bodhisatta.