Once upon a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, the Bodhisatta was his chaplain. He was a man of charity and other good works, whose mind was set on righteousness, always keeping unbroken the Five Commandments. And the King honoured him beyond the other Brahmins.

Suspecting the Bodhisatta was captured by soldiers and as he was being brought in bonds, he saw some snake charmers were exhibiting a snake, which they laid hold of by the tail and the throat, and tied round their necks. Seeing this, the Bodhisatta begged the them no to do this, for the snake might bite them and cut their lives short. “Brahmin,” replied the snake charmers, “this is a good and well behaved cobra; he’s not wicked like you, who for your wickedness and misconduct are being hauled off in custody.”

The Bodhisatta thought to himself, “Even cobras, if they do not bite or wound, are called ‘good.’ How much more must this be the case with those who have come to be human beings! Verily it is just this goodness which is the most excellent thing in all the world, nor does aught surpass it.”

Then he was brought before the King. “What is this, my friends?” said the King. “Here’s a thief who has been robbing your majesty’s treasury.” “Away with him to execution.” “Sir,” said the Brahmin, “I am not a thief.” “Then how came you to take the money?” Hereon the Bodhisatta made answer precisely as above, ending as follows:- “This then is why I have come to the conclusion that it is goodness which is the highest and most excellent thing in all the world. But be that as it may, yet, seeing that the cobra, when it does not bite or wound, must simply be called ‘good’ and nothing more, for this reason too it is goodness alone which is the highest and most excellent of all things.”

After preaching the truth to the King in this stanza, the Bodhisatta, abjuring all Lusts, and renouncing the world for the hermit’s life, went to the Himalayas, where he attained to the five Knowledges and the eight Attainments, earning for himself the sure hope of re-birth thereafter in the Brahma Realm.