Loyalty

Wounded while breaking a siege of seven kings, the elder of two brother warhorses refuses to be replaced, finishing the battle before dying in the king's honor.

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.

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.

A wise but ugly prince loses his wife the moment she sees his face, and follows her through four disguises and a god-engineered siege to win her back.

A king builds an entire lake just to lure a teaching from a golden goose, and the goose-king's own deputy refuses to abandon him the moment the trap closes.

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.

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.