Udapana-Dusaka Jataka

At Isipatana, near Benares, the Buddha stayed among a community of monks who drew their water from a well. A jackal used to foul that well and then run away. Jataka No. 271 of the Pali Canon records the tale, and this retelling follows that text. The story is short and simple, but it holds a lesson that many people find hard to hear.

The monks had no easy way to stop the jackal. One day the novices pelted it with clods of earth and made the place uncomfortable for it. After that the jackal never came near the well again. The account does not describe any cruelty. It simply says that the novices made things unpleasant, and that the animal did not return.

The monks heard about this and began to discuss it in the Hall of Truth, the gathering hall where they met to talk over the Dhamma. They said that the jackal who used to foul their well had not come back since the novices chased it away with clods. The Buddha came in and asked what they were talking about as they sat together. When they told him, he replied that this was not the first time this jackal had fouled a well. He had done the same thing before. Then the Buddha told a tale from long ago.

Once, in the same place near Benares called Isipatana, there was that very well. At that time the Bodhisatta was born into a good family. When he grew up, he took up the religious life and lived at Isipatana with a body of followers. The ascetics drew water from the well just as the monks did in the Buddha's day. A certain jackal fouled it, just as in the present story, and took to his heels.

One day the ascetics surrounded the jackal. Having caught him somehow, they led him before the Bodhisatta. They did not punish him themselves. They brought him to their leader for judgment. The scene is a small one, but it shows a community that refers a wrong to its wisest member before it acts.

The Bodhisatta spoke to the jackal in the first stanza. He said that this well had been made by a forest-anchorite who had long lived as a hermit in the glade. He asked why, after all that man's trouble and toil, the jackal had tried to spoil it. The question is mild. It does not accuse in anger. It lays out what the well cost its maker and asks the jackal to look at what he had done.

The jackal answered in the second stanza. He said that it is the law of the jackal race to foul a place after drinking there. His fathers and grandfathers had always done so, he said, so there was no just reason for blame. The Bodhisatta replied in the third stanza. If that is the jackal's law, he said, what can their lawlessness be? He hoped he had seen the last of the jackal, with his deeds both lawful and unlawful. Then he admonished him and told him not to go there again. From that time the jackal did not even pause to look at the well.

When the Buddha ended the discourse, he declared the Truths and identified the birth. The jackal that fouled the well was the same in both cases. The Buddha himself had been the chief of the ascetic band.

The jackal's defence is one of the oldest in the world. It says that this is how we have always done it, and so no one may complain. The Bodhisatta does not argue about jackal customs. He answers with a dry question that shows how empty the excuse is, since a custom of fouling a shared well is already the opposite of law. For the devotee the lesson is plain. A habit does not become right by being old, and a wrong done to a shared well harms everyone who needs to drink. The Bodhisatta's kindness is also worth noting. He asks, he warns, and he lets the jackal go.