Once upon a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, the Bodhisatta came to life as a bull. And while he was still a young calf, his owners, who had been lodging with an old woman, made him over to her in settlement of their reckoning. She reared him like her own child, feeding him on rice-gruel and rice and on other good cheer. They called him “Granny’s Blackie.” Growing up, he used to range about with the other cattle of the village, and was as black as jet. The village urchins used to catch hold of his horns and ears and dewlaps, and have a ride; or they would hold on to his tail in play, and mount on his back.

One day he thought to himself, “My mother is very poor; she has painfully reared me, as if I were her own child. What if I were to earn some money to ease her hard lot?” From then onwards, he was always looking out for a job.

Now, one day a young merchant at the head of a caravan came with five hundred wagons to the village. He was unable to cross the river with his caravan. His oxen could not pull over the cart to the other side of the river. The Bodhisatta, with the other cattle of the village was mooving around. The young merchant, being a judge of cattle, saw the Bodhisatta. He felt sure that blackie would do the job for him. When he wanted to find the owner of Blackie, no one came forward.

But when the young merchant slipped a cord through the Bodhisatta’s nose and tried to lead him off, the bull would not budge. The Bodhisatta would not go till his pay was fixed. Understanding the meaning, the merchant said, “Master, if you will pull these five hundred waggons across, I will pay you two coins per cart, or a thousand coins in all.”

It now required no force to get the Bodhisatta to come. The men harnessed him to the carts. The first he dragged over with a single pull, and landed it high and dry; and in like manner he dealt with the whole string of waggons.

The young merchant tied round the Bodhisatta’s neck a bundle containing five hundred coins. The Bodhisatta thought to himself: “This fellow is not paying me according to contract! I won’t let him move on!” So he stood across the path of the foremost waggon and blocked the way. Merchant’s men tried but they could not get him out of the way.

The merchant thought: “I suppose he knows I’ve paid him short.” He wrapped up a thousand coins in a bundle, which he tied round the Bodhisatta’s neck, saying, “Here’s your pay for pulling the waggons across.” And away went the Bodhisatta with the thousand pieces of money to his “mother.”

Blackie appeared fagged out, with his eyes bloodshot, from dragging all those five hundred waggons over the river. The pious woman, finding a thousand pieces of money round his neck, cried out, “Where did you get this, my child?” Learning form the herdsmen what had happened, she exclaimed, “Have I any wish to live on your earnings, my child? Why did you go through all this fatigue?” So saying, she washed the Bodhisatta with warm water and rubbed him all over with oil; she gave him drink and regaled him with due victuals. And when her life closed, she passed away, with the Bodhisatta, to fare according to her deserts.