127. The Story of Kalaϯuka [Kalaϯuka-Jātaka]

At one time Buddha was living in Jetavanārāma and delivered this story of Kalaϯuka on a certain occasion because of a boastful monk. This monk was boastful as was the monk in the story of the present regarding Kaæāhaka [No. 125].

Just as its present story is similar to the story of Kaæāhaka, so here also in the same way our Kalaϯuka studied as a young boy with the son of the millionaire of Benares. The reader will have to understand that Kalaϯuka also acted in the very same capacity in the millionaire’s palace looking after the property of the millionaire of Benares. He as well wrote a bogus letter to the millionaire of a remote village introducing himself as the son of the Benares millionaire, and signed it with the millionaire’s signet ring. All other incidents are also similar to the aforementioned story of Kaæāhaka.

The only difference in this story is that one day after living together with the daughter of the millionaire of the remote village, the boastful boy who married the young woman scorned her on one occasion when they went to take a bath together.

The story is as follows:

At one point the millionaire of Benares did not see Kalaϯuka in the palace for a period of time. As he did not see the young lad, he asked his parrot to find him. The parrot said, “Yes.” And he left the palace to see where Kalaϯuka had gone. Luckily, he came to the place where Kalaϯuka and his wife had come to take a bath in the river. The parrot, on seeing him, hid in the middle of some branches of a rose apple tree so as to observe them. While Kalaϯuka was lying in the water, the millionaire’s daughter, his wife, gave him a decoction of perfumed milk to drink. Kalaϯuka took the cup into his hands, rinsed his mouth with the perfumed milk and spit it out over her head. The parrot saw this. The parrot could not tolerate such an insult to a noble woman by the slave Kalaϯuka. He came out of his hiding place and said, “Hey, Kalaϯuka. Even though I am a forest bird, you and I both lived together in the palace. Do you not understand your position? Is it right to scorn such a noble woman by spitting over her head? The milk that you took into your mouth ought to have been drunk, not spit out.”

Kalaϯuka heard this. [The millionaire’s daughter also heard this.] Kalaϯuka thought, “If this parrot discloses my situation to others, it will not be good.” Addressing the parrot, he said, “O honorable parrot, please come and talk to me. How are you?” Then the parrot, hearing these words, thought, “As I disclosed his position, there is no doubt that if I go to his hand and perch on it, he will kill me, strangling me by the neck.”  Thinking so, he rose up to the sky and went back to Benares. He described what he had seen to the millionaire of Benares.

The millionaire of Benares, on hearing the story, decided to bring back Kalaϯuka to Benares as his slave.

The Buddha finalized the story saying, “Kalaϯuka at that time was the present boastful monk. And I, who have become the Buddha, was the millionaire of Benares.”

The moral: “Do not overstep one’s bounds, and respect the positions of others.”

Link: https://hhdorjechangbuddhaiiiinfo.com/2025/08/11/127-the-story-of-kalai%c2%afuka-kalai%c2%afuka-jataka/

#Buddhisttalesforyoungandold #Buddhiststories #storiesforkids #moralstories #Buddha #Jatakastories #PansiyaPanasJataka #JatakaTalesofSakyamuniBuddha #JatakaTales #SakyamuniBuddha’sPast