Once upon a time, when king Brahmadatta reigned in Benares, the Bodhisatta became Sakka, king of the gods.

Brahmadatta could not endure to look upon anything old or decrepit, whether elephant, horse, ox, or what not. He was full of pranks, and whenever he saw any such, he would chase them away; he destroyed old carts; any old women that he saw he sent for, and beat upon the belly, then stood them up again and gave them a scare; he made old men roll about and play on the ground like tumblers. If he saw none, but only heard that there was a greybeard in a town, he sent for him and took his sport with him.

At this, the people sent their parents outside the boundaries of the kingdom. Nobody cared for their mother and father. The king’s friends were as wanton as he.

Sakka saw this and planned to humble the king. He took upon him the form of an old man, and placing two jars of buttermilk in a crazy old wagon, he yoked to it a pair of old oxen, and set out upon a feast day. Sakka, dressed in rags, and driving this cart, came to meet the king. When the king saw the old cart, he shouted, “Away with that cart, you!” But his people answered, “Where is it, my lord? We cannot see any cart!” (for Sakka by his power let it be seen by no one but the king). And, coming up to the king repeatedly, at last Sakka, still driving his cart, smashed one of the jars upon the king’s head, and made him turn round; then he smashed the other also. And the buttermilk trickled down on either side of his head. Thus the king was teased and tormented, and made miserable by Sakka’s doings.

When Sakka saw his distress, he made the cart disappear, and took his proper shape again. Poised in mid air, thunderbolt in hand, he addressed him “O! wicked and unrighteous king! Will you never become old yourself? Will not age assail you? Yet you sport and mock old people! It is because of you alone, men cannot care for their parents welfare! If you do not cease from this, I will cleave your head with my thunderbolt. Go, and do so no more.”

With this rebuke, he declared the worth of parents, and made known the advantage of reverencing old age; after which discourse he departed to his own place. From that time forward the king never thought of doing anything like what he had done before.