Sacca
Jataka Tales
A king who walked above the earth and breathed the scent of lotuses speaks the first lie ever uttered by a human being, and the earth answers him directly.
A wizard disguised as a monk wrongs the queen; the enraged king banishes every monk, until Sakka teaches him true reverence through a humble pacceka-buddha.
Jātaka No. 457: the gods Right and Wrong meet in their chariots and neither gives way. Wrong falls, and the Buddha links the tale to Devadatta.
A revered ascetic's secret failing becomes public scandal, and only his honest confession before the king lets him recover the powers his shame had cost him.
Jataka No. 513: Prince Alinasattu offers his life to a man-eating ogre for his father, and his fearless truth reveals the ogre as lost kin.
Jataka No. 456: A poor student breaks a brahmin's bowl and vows to repay him as king one day; years later King Junha, told at Jetavana of Ananda.
Jātaka No. 444: When a snake bites Yaññadatta, three honest admissions, Dīpāyana's first, draw the poison from the boy in three stages.
A merchant claiming he deserves a larger share of the profit hides his own father inside a tree to fake a spirit's verdict, until smoke exposes him.
No. 528: Slandered by five corrupt judges, the ascetic Mahābodhi warned by a hound leaves a king's park, then returns with a monkey skin to refute them.
A naga king trusts a false ascetic with the secret of his people's defense, the ascetic passes it to the garuda king, and the garuda king, who is the Bodhisatta, chooses mercy over conquest.
A princess follows her leprous husband into the forest, survives an ogre's attack through Sakka's intervention, and heals him with a solemn act of truth.
A blind master mariner guides a ship through six impossible seas and the ocean's own roaring mouth, turning it back with nothing but a single truth.
Queen Sumedhā's Act of Truth moves Sakka to send a deva to be born as Prince Mahā-Panāda, whom no entertainer can make smile until Sakka's own Half-Body Dance succeeds.
A cannibal king captures a hundred rulers for sacrifice, and a captive who keeps a promise at the cost of his own life ends up converting his own captor.
A physician orders a serpent to suck back its own venom or burn in a pit of coals, and the snake chooses death rather than take back what it had cast out.