Gratitude

After enduring a lean season at Veranja with perfect contentment, the Buddha tells of a parrot who stayed loyal to a withered tree until Sakka restored it.

A treasurer's remark on a dead mouse inspires a penniless youth to build a fortune through patient trade; the Buddha told this of Little Wayman's rise from failure to enlightenment.

King Dalhadhamma's war elephant, honored for decades, is lent to a potter in old age; the Bodhisattva minister's rebuke restores her.

A king who favored new courtiers over loyal veterans is consoled with the story of a goatherd who lost his whole flock chasing a herd of golden deer.

Jataka No. 399: caught in the fowler Channa's snare, the Bodhisatta vulture weeps not for his own death but for the blind parents he feeds, and his devotion moves Channa to free him.

A black bull given to a poor old woman repays her devotion by pulling five hundred stranded carts, winning wages a merchant then tried to withhold.

Lost merchants find a wish-granting banyan guarded by a Serpent King; greed to fell it for more treasure proves fatal to all but the chief (No. 493).

Sakka withers a parrot king's fig tree to test his loyalty; the parrot eats its dust rather than leave, and Sakka restores the tree in wonder.

A tailor's son helps make his friend a king, and when another friend wrongs him out of resentment, he pleads for that friend's life rather than letting the king punish him.

The golden stag Ruru (No. 482) saves a drowning debtor on condition of secrecy; betrayed for a royal reward, he still begs the king to forgive and reward his betrayer.

A parrot king (No. 484) carries rice from a Brahmin's field to his parents; snared, he explains his threefold use of grain, and accepts just eight acres.

A golden crab intervenes when a crow and venomous serpent conspire against a righteous farmer, forcing the viper to withdraw its poison and saving his life.