Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta was king in Benares, the Bodhisatta was living as an ascetic, in the Himalayas; and he had cultivated the Faculties and the Attainments. Then the king of Benares, observing the activities of his son Prince Brahmadatta, was filled with suspicion, and banished him.

The youth with his wife Asitabhu made his way to Himalaya, and took up his abode in a hut of leaves, with fish to eat, and fruits. He saw a woodland sprite, and fell in love with her. He said, “I will make her my wife!” and forgetting Asitabhu, he followed after her steps. His wife seeing that thought, “My husband doesn’t care for me. What to do with him?” So she came to the Bodhisatta, and learnt what she needed and gazing at the mystic object, she developed the Faculties and the Attainments. She returned home and stood at the door of her hut of leaves.

Now young Brahmadatta followed the sprite, but she vanished. He baulked of his desire and went to the hut. Asitabhu saw him coming, and rose up in the air; and poised upon a plane in the air of the colour of a precious stone, she said to him “My young lord! It is through you that I have attained this ecstatic bliss and all my desires have gone away.”

As he looked, she rose up and departed to another place. And when she had gone, he moaned:

“Greed that knows no stay,

Lust, the senses all confusing,

Steals our good away,

Even as now my wife I’m losing.”

He lived alone in the forest, and at his father’s death he received the kingdom.