Once upon a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, the result of a past act of the Bodhisatta was that he came to life as a dog. He lived as the head of several hundred dogs in a great cemetery.

One day, the king rode in his chariot drawn by milk-white horses. After amusing himself all the day in the grounds, the king came back to the city after sunset.

The horses were tied on to the chariot, left in the courtyard. In the night it rained and the horses got wet. Moreover, the king’s dogs came down form the upper chambers and gnawed the leather work and straps. Next day horsemen told about this to the king. Enraged at the dogs, the king said, “Kill every dog you see.” Then began a great slaughter of dogs; and the creatures, finding that they were being slain whenever they were seen, went to the Bodhisatta.

The Bodhisatta asked, ”Why are you all assembling in such numbers?” They explained everything.

The Bodhisatta thoght to himself: “No dogs from outside can get into a place which is closely watched; it must be the dogs inside the palace who have done it. At present nothing happens to the real culprits, while the guiltless are being put to death. I have to discover the real culprits save the lives of my kith and kin?” He comforted his followers by saying, “Have no fear; I will save you. Only wait here till I see the king.”

Then, guided by the thoughts of love, and calling to mind the Ten Perfections, he entered the city; commanding thus, “Let no hand be lifted to throw stick or stone at me.” Accordingly, when he made his appearance, no man grew angry at the sight of him.

In the meanwhile, The king, after ordering the dogs’ destruction, had taken his seat in the hall of justice. And straight to him ran the Bodhisatta, leaping under the king’s throne. The king’s servants tried to get him out; but in vain. The Bodhisatta, came out of the throne, and bowing to the king, said, “Is it you who are having the dogs destroyed?”

The king replied,“Yes, it is I.”

The Bodhisatta asked,“What is their offence?”

The king replied,”They have been gnawing the straps and the leather covering my carriage.”

The Bodhisatta asked,“Do you know the dogs who actually did the mischief?”

The king replied,“No, I do not.”

The Bodhisatta asked,“But, your majesty, if you do not know for certain the real culprits, it is not right to order the destruction of every dog that is seen.”

The king replied,“It was because dogs had gnawed the leather of my carriage that I ordered them all to be killed.”

The Bodhisatta asked,“Do your people kill all dogs without exception; or are there some dogs who are spared?”

The king replied,“Some are spared; the dogs of my own palace.”

The Bodhisatta said,“Sir! just now you were saying that you had ordered the universal slaughter of all dogs wherever found, because dogs had gnawed the leather of your carriage; whereas now you say that the thorough bred dogs of your own palace escape death. There fore you are following the four Evil Courses of partiality, dislike, ignorance and fear. Such course are wrong, and not kinglike. For kings in trying cases should be as unbiased as the beam of a balance. But in this instance, since the royal dogs go scot-free, whilst poor dogs are killed, this is not the impartial doom of all dogs alike, but only the slaughter of poor dogs.”

And moreover, it is not justice that you are performing.”

The Bodhisatta taught the Truth to the king:

The dogs that in the royal palace grow,

The well-bred dogs, so strong and fair of form,-

Not these, but only we, are doomed to die.

Here’s no impartial sentence meted out

To all alike; it is slaughter of the poor.

After listening to the Bodhisatta’s words, the king said, “Do you in your wisdom know who it actually was that gnawed the leather of my carriage?”

“The through – bred dogs that live in your own palace are the culprits.”

The King said,”Proove it.”

The Bodhisatta said,“Send for your dogs, and have a little butter – milk and kusa-grass brought in.” The king did so.

Then Bodhisatta said, “Let this grass be mashed up in the butter milk, and make the dogs drink it.”

The king did so; with the result that each several dog, as he drank, vomited. And they all brought up bits of leather!

“It is like a judgment of a perfect Buddha himself,” cried the king overjoyed, and he did homage to the Bodhisatta by offering him the royal umbrella. But the Bodhisatta taught the truth in the ten stanzas on righteousness in the Te-sakuna Jataka:

Walk righteously, great king of princely race.

Then having established the king in the five Commandments, and having exhorted his majesty to be steadfast, the Bodhisatta handed back to the king the white umbrella of kingship.

At the close of the Great Being’s words, the king commanded that the lives of all creatures should be safe form harm. He ordered that all dogs form the Bodhisatta downwards, should have a constant supply of food such as he himself ate; and, abiding by the teachings of the Bodhisatta, he spent his life long in charity and other good deeds, so that when he died he was re-born in the Deva Heaven. The ‘Dog’s Teaching’ endured for ten thousand years. The Bodhisatta also lived to a ripe old age, and then passed away to fare according to his deserts.