Once on a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, Devadatta came to life again as a monkey, and dwelt near the Himalayas as the lord of a tribe of monkeys. Fearing that his male offspring might grow up to oust him from his lordship, he used to geld them all with his teeth. His wife in order to save her unborn progeny, stole away to a forest at the foot of the mountain. In due season she gave birth to the Bodhisatta. And when he was full grown and had come to years of understanding, he was gifted with marvellous strength.

He one day asked his mother,”Where is my father?” She replied,”He dwells at the foot of a mountain, and is king of a tribe of monkeys.”

The Bodhisatta said,”Take me to see him, mother.”

She replied,”Not so, my son; for your father is so afraid of being supplanted by his sons that he gelds them all with his teeth.”

The Bodhisatta said,”Never mind; take me there and I know what to do.” So she took him with her to the old monkey. At sight of his son, the old monkey, feeling sure that the Bodhisatta would grow up to depose him, resolved by a feigned embrace to crush the life out of the Bodhisatta. He cried; “Ah! My boy! Where have you been all this long time?” And, making a show of embracing the Bodhisatta, he hugged him like a vice. But the Bodhisatta, who was as strong as an elephant, returned the hug so mightily that his father’s ribs were like to break.

Then the old monkey thought, “My son is powerful and if he grows up, will certainly kill me.” Casting about how to kill the Bodhisatta first, he planned to kill him by sending him to a lake where an ogre lived. He thought that the ogre will eat him. So he said to the Bodhisatta, “I’m old now, my boy, and should like to hand over the tribe to you; to day you shall be made king. In a lake there are two kinds of water-lily, three kinds of blue lotus, and five kinds of white-lotus. Go and pick me some.” The Bodhisatta answered, “Yes, father.” ; and went to the lake. Approaching the lake with caution, he studied the footprints on its banks and marked how all of them led down to the water, but none ever came back. Realising that the lake was haunted by an ogre, he understood that his father, being unable himself to kill him, wished to get him killed by the ogre. He said,”But I’ll get the lotuses without going into the water at all.” So he went to a dry spot, and taking a run, leaped from the bank. In his jump, as he was clearing the water, he plucked two flowers which grew up above the surface of the water, and put them on the opposite bank. On his way back, he plucked two more; in like manner, made a heap on both sides of the lake, but always keeping out of the ogre’s watery domain. When he had picked enough he was gathering those on one bank. The astonished ogre exclaimed, “I’ve lived a long time in this lake, but I never saw even a human being so wonderfully clever! Here is this monkey who has picked all the flowers he wants, and yet has kept safely out of range of my power.” The ogre came out of the lake to where the Bodhisatta stood, and addressed him thus, “O! king of the monkeys! he that has three qualities such as Dexterity and Valour and Resource shall have the mastery over his enemies; and you, I think, you have all the three.”

The ogre asked the Bodhisatta why he was gathering the flowers.

The Bodhisatta said,”My father is planning to make me king of his tribe and that is why I am gathering them.”

The Ogre said,”But one so peerless as you should not carry flowers; I will carry them for you.” And so saying, he picked up the flowers and followed the Bodhisatta.

Seeing this from afar, the Bodhisatta’s father knew that his plot had failed. “I sent my son to fall a prey to the ogre, and here he is returning safe and sound, with the ogre humbly carrying his flowers for him! I am undone!” cried the old monkey, and his heart burst into seven pieces, so that he died then and there.

And all the other monkeys met together and chose the Bodhisatta to be their king.