The Birth Story about the Wise Hare

This story was told by the Buddha while living at Jetavana, about an offering of all the Buddhist requisites. 

A certain landowner at Savatthi provided all the requisites for the Sangha, led by the Buddha. He set up a pavilion at his house door, invited all the Sangha with their chief Buddha, seated them on elegant seats prepared for them, and offered them a variety of choice and dainty food. He said, "Come again tomorrow," he offered them for a whole week, and on the seventh day he presented the Buddha and his five hundred disciples with all the requisites. At the end of the feast, the Master, in rejoicing in his action, said,

 "Layman, you are right in giving pleasure and satisfaction by this offering. For this is a tradition of wise men of old, who sacrificed their lives for any alms-walkers they met with, and gave them even their own flesh to eat." 

And at the request of the host, he related this old-world legend.

Once upon a time, when King Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, the Bodhisattva came to life as a hare and lived in a wood. On one side of this wood was the foot of a mountain, on another side a river, and on the third side a border-village. The hare had three friends: a monkey, a jackal, and an otter. These four wise creatures lived together and each of them got his food on his own hunting-ground, and in the evening, they again came together. The hare, in his wisdom by way of admonition, preached the Truth to his three companions, teaching that alms are to be given, the moral law to be observed, and holy days to be kept. They accepted his admonition and went each to their own part of the jungle and dwelt there.

One day, the Bodhisattva in observing the sky, and looking at the moon knew that the next day would be a holy day (the Uposatha). He addressed his three companions and said, "Tomorrow is a holy day. Let all three of you observe the moral precepts on this day. To one that stands fast in moral practice, almsgiving brings a great reward. Therefore, feed any alms-walkers that come to you by giving them food from your own table." 

They readily assented and abode each in their own place of dwelling.

Early in the next morning, the otter sallied forth to seek his prey and went down to the bank of the Ganges. Now it came to pass that a fisherman had landed seven red fish, strung them together on a withe he had taken and buried them in the sand on the river's bank. Then, he dropped down the stream in order to catch more fish. The otter, scenting the buried fish, dug up the sand till he came upon them, pulled them out, and shouted aloud thrice, "Does anyone own these fish?" 

Not seeing any owner, he took hold of the withe with his teeth and laid the fish in the jungle where he dwelt, intending to eat them at a fitting time. And then he lay down, thinking how virtuous he was! 

The jackal too sallied forth in quest of food and found in the hut of a field-watcher two spits, a lizard and a pot of milk-curd. And after thrice crying aloud, "To whom do these belong?" 

Not finding an owner, he put on his neck the rope for lifting the pot, grasping the spits and the lizard with his teeth, bringing and laying them in his own lair, then thinking, "In due season I will devour them," and so lay down, reflecting how virtuous he had been.

The monkey also entered the clump of trees, and gathering a bunch of mangoes, laid them up in his part of the jungle, meaning to eat them in due season, and then lay down, thinking how virtuous he was. 

Meanwhile,  the Bodhisattva in due time came out, intending to browse on the kusha grass, and as he lay in the jungle, the thought occurred to him, "It is impossible for me to offer grass to any beggars that may chance to appear, and I have no oil or rice and such like. If any beggar shall appeal to me, I shall have to give him my own flesh to eat." At this splendid display of virtue, Sakka's white marble throne manifested signs of heat. 

Sakka on reflection discovered the cause and resolved to put this royal hare to the test. First of all, he went and stood by the otter's dwelling-place, disguised as a brahmin, and being asked why he stood there, he replied, "Wise Sir, if I could get something to eat, after keeping the fast, I would perform all my monastic duties." 

The otter replied, "Very well, I will give you some food," and as he conversed with him, he repeated the first verse:

Seven red fish I safely brought 

to land from Ganges flood,

O brahmin, eat your fill

and stay within this wood.

The brahmin said, "Let be till tomorrow. I will see to it by and by." 

Next, he went to the jackal, and when asked by him why he stood there, he made the same answer. The jackal, too, readily promised him some food, and in talking with him repeated the second verse:

A lizard and a jar of curds, 

the keeper's evening meal,

Two spits to roast withal 

Wrongfully did I steal it:

Such as I have I give to you: 

O brahmin, eat, I pray,

If you deign to this wood 

Stay with us for a while.

Said the brahmin, "Let be till tomorrow. I will see to it by and by." 

Then he went to the monkey, and when asked what he meant by standing there, he answered just as before. The monkey readily offered him some food, and in conversing with him gave utterance to the third verse:

Icy stream with mango ripe, and pleasant greenwood shade,

All for you to enjoy, 

if you can dwell content in forest glade.

Said the brahmin, "Let be till tomorrow. I will see to it by and by." 

And he went to the wise hare. On being asked why he stood there, he made the same reply. The Bodhisattva, on hearing what he wanted, was highly delighted and said, "Brahmin, you have done well in coming to me for food. This day will I grant you a boon that I have never granted before, but you shall not break the moral law by taking animal life. Go, friend, and when you have piled together logs of wood, and kindled a fire, come and let me know, and I will sacrifice myself by falling into the midst of the flames, and when my body is roasted, you shall eat my flesh and fulfil all your monastic duties." 

And in thus addressing him the hare uttered the fourth verse:

Nor sesame, nor beans, nor rice have I as food to give,

But roast with fire my flesh I yield, if you with us would live.

Sakka, on hearing what he said, by his miraculous power caused a heap of burning coals to appear, and came and told the Bodhisattva. Rising from his bed of kuca grass and coming to the place, he thrice shook himself that if there were any insects within his coat, they might escape death. 

Then offering his whole body as a free gift, he sprang up, and like a royal swan, alighting on a cluster of lotuses, in an ecstasy of joy he fell on the heap of live coals. But the flame failed even to heat the pores of the hair on the body of the Bodhisatta, and it was as if he had entered a region of frost. Then he addressed Sakka in these words: "Brahmin, the fire you have kindled is icy-cold: it fails to beat even the pores of the hair on my body. What is the meaning of this?" 

"Wise sir," he replied, "I am no brahmin. I am Sakka, and I have come to put your virtue to the test." 

The Bodhisattva said, "If not only you, Sakka, but all the inhabitants of the world were to try me in this matter of almsgiving, they would not find in me any unwillingness to give," and with this the Bodhisattva uttered a cry of exultation like a lion roaring. 

Then said Sakka to the Bodhisattva, "O wise hare, be your virtue known throughout a whole aeon."

He then squeezed the mountain, with the essence thus extracted, and daubed the sign of a hare on the orb of the moon. And after depositing the hare on a bed of young kuca grass, in the same wooded part of the jungle, Sakka returned to his own place in heaven. 

And these four wise creatures dwelt happily and harmoniously together, fulfilling the moral law and observing holy days, till they departed to fare according to their deeds.

The Buddha, when he had ended his lesson, revealed the Four Truths.

At the conclusion of the Truths, the householder offered all the Buddhist requisites to Bhikkhus attaining fruition of the First Path. 

The Buddha said, "At that time Ananda was the otter, Moggallana was the jackal, Sariputta the monkey, and I myself was the wise hare."

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Reference: Cowell, E. B. (ed.); Chalmers, Robert, W. H. D. Rouse, H. T. Francis, R. A. Neil, E. B. Cowell (trans.). 1895–1907. The Jātaka or Stories of the Buddha's Former Births. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 6 volumes. Vol. III, 34-37.