Jataka 242
Sunakha Jātaka
The Dog
as told by Eric Van Horn
originally translated by William Henry Denham Rouse, Cambridge University
originally edited by Professor Edward Byles Cowell, Cambridge University
This is a story about a clever dog. It tells a story that shows that wisdom and patience are often the same quality.
“Foolish Dog.” The Master told this story while he was living at Jetavana. It is about a dog that used to be fed in the resting hall by the Ambala tower. (Ambala is a city in India.)
It is said that from the time he was a puppy this dog had been kept and fed by some water-carriers. In the course of time it grew up to be a big dog. Once day a villager happened to see him, and he bought him from the water-carriers for some clothing and one rupee. Then, fastening him to a chain, he led the dog away.
The dog went with him without resisting. He did not make a sound. He followed his new master, eating whatever was offered. “He is fond of me, no doubt,” the man thought, so he freed him from the chain. As soon as the dog was free, he ran off, and he never stopped running until he got back to the place from which he came.
Seeing him, the monks guessed what had happened. And in the evening, when they were gathered in the Dharma Hall, they began talking about it. “Friend, here is the dog back again in our resting hall! How clever he must have been to be freed from his chain! No sooner was he free than back he ran!”
The Master, entering the hall, asked what they were all talking about as they sat together. They told him. He responded, “Monks, this is not the first time our dog was clever enough to get rid of his chain. He was just the same before.” And he told them this story from the past.
Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta was the King of Benares, the Bodhisatta was born into a rich family in the kingdom of Kāsi. And when he grew up, he established a household of his own.
There was a man in Benares who had a dog who had been fed on rice until it grew fat. And a certain villager who had come to Benares saw the dog. He gave the owner a fine garment and a single coin for the dog, which he then led off bound by a strap. When he arrived at the outskirts of a forest, he entered a hut, tied up the dog, and lay down to sleep. At that moment the Bodhisatta entered the forest on some errand, and he saw the dog fastened to the thong, whereupon he uttered the first stanza:
“Foolish Dog! why don't you bite
Through that strap that holds you tight?
In a flash you would be free,
Scampering off merrily!”
On hearing this stanza, the dog uttered the second stanza:
“Resolute, determined, I
Wait my opportunity,
Careful watch and ward I keep
Till the people are asleep.”
Figure: The Dog is Wise Beyond His Ears
So he spoke. And when the company were asleep, he gnawed through the strap and returned to his master’s house in great glee.
When this discourse was ended, the Master identified the birth: “The dogs are the same, and I was the wise man.”
