Puṇṇanadī Jātaka

The Puṇṇanadī Jataka, numbered 214 in the Pali collection and recorded in the Jataka Atthakatha, was told by the Buddha at Jetavana. The theme was perfect wisdom. The monks had gathered in the Hall of Truth and were saying that the wisdom of the Supreme Buddha was great and wide, quick, sharp, penetrating and full of resource.

The Master came in and asked what they were discussing. When they told him, he said that not only now is the Buddha wise and resourceful. He had been so in days of old as well. Then he told them a story of the past.

Once, while Brahmadatta was king of Benares, the Bodhisatta was born as the son of the court chaplain. When he grew up he studied at Takkasila. After his father's death he received the office of chaplain, and he became the king's counsellor in things human and divine.

Afterwards the king opened his ear to backbiters. In anger he told the Bodhisatta not to dwell before his face any more, and he sent him away from Benares. So the Bodhisatta took his wife and family and made his home in a certain village of Kasi.

In time the king remembered the Bodhisatta's goodness. He felt that it was not fitting to send a messenger to fetch his teacher. Instead he decided to compose a verse of poetry and write it on a leaf. He would have crow's flesh cooked, tie the letter and the meat together in a white cloth, and seal it with the king's seal.

The king reflected that if his teacher was wise, he would read the letter and see that the meat was crow's meat, and he would come. If not, he would not come. The test was a gentle one. It let the king ask for his teacher without a command, and it let the teacher answer without humiliation.

The king wrote a stanza on the leaf. It speaks of that which can drink when rivers are in flood, that which the corn will cover out of sight, and that which foretells a traveller on the road. It ends by asking the wise one to eat and to read the riddle aright. All three clues point to the crow, each line playing on a different old proverb or folk belief about that bird.

The Bodhisatta read the letter and thought that the king wished to see him. He spoke a second verse. It says that the king does not forget to send him crow, that geese, herons and peacocks are other birds, and that one who sends one will send the rest. In the same breath, it says that if he had sent nothing at all, that would have been far worse. Having understood, the Bodhisatta had his carriage made ready.

He went to the king and looked upon him. The king was pleased, and set him again in the place of the king's chaplain. No one is said to have been punished and no reproach is recorded. The story simply restores the relationship that slander had broken, as if it had never been cut.

When this discourse was ended, the Master identified the birth. Ananda was the king in those days, and the Buddha was his chaplain. The monks who had praised his present wisdom were shown that the same resourcefulness had marked him long before. They had seen a quick mind in the Teacher, and now they saw its long history.

The Jataka shows two kinds of wisdom. The Bodhisatta's is the wisdom of reading what lies behind a message and of answering without bitterness. The king's is the wisdom of knowing that he has wronged a good man, and of finding a dignified way to mend it. Neither needs a long speech. A leaf, a cloth and a piece of meat are enough. In a world where reputations are lost to whispers, the story reminds us that a hurt can be repaired, if one side asks with grace and the other replies with an open mind.