129. The Story of the Jackal That Worshipped Fire [Aggika-Jātaka]

When Buddha was living in Jetavanārāma in Sāvatthi, this story was delivered about a monk who knew many deceptions and trickeries:

Long ago in ancient times King Brahmadatta was ruling in Benares. At the time he was ruling, the Enlightenment Being was born as a rat. In the meantime, a certain jackal was burned by fire and only the hair on the top of his head remained. Then, the jackal whose hair on the top of his head had been preserved saw himself in a reflection. He thought, “How can I live now only with hair on the top of my head?” Seeing the Enlightenment Being and his retinue of rats, he thought, “There is now one way that I can live.” Thinking so, he went to those rats and became friendly with them. As was mentioned in the previous Jātaka story, he paid obeisance to the Enlightenment Being and the Enlightenment Being asked, “Who are you?” He said, “I am Bharadvāja, Worshipper of Fire.” The Enlightenment Being asked, “Why did you come here?” He said, “I came to look after you and your retinue.” Then the Enlightenment Being again asked, “How can you protect us?” The jackal said, “When you go out in the morning for food, and come back in the evening, I will count your numbers and make sure as many return as left. That is how I can look after you.” The Enlightenment Being said, “That is very good, uncle. Do so.” Since then the jackal, as he pretended to count them in the morning and evening, would eat one of them each time they went and came back. Meanwhile, the rats began to notice that their ranks were dwindling.

The Enlightenment Being heard this and the next day he came out at the end of the pack. The jackal jumped up on the Enlightenment Being who was now last, as he had done previously on other rats. The Enlightenment Being who had been mindful about this, jumped out of the way suddenly. He said, “Now I understand your promising to protect us. You have killed numbers of us. That is what you have done to us.” Saying so, he jumped up onto the throat of the jackal and bit it, and killed him.

The jackal at that time was this hypocritical monk of today. And I was the king of rats, who has become the fully enlightened one today.

Saying so, the Buddha completed this story of the past.

The moral: “Hypocrisy will not serve one’s ends for a long time.”

Link: https://hhdorjechangbuddhaiiiinfo.com/2025/09/02/129-the-story-of-the-jackal-that-worshipped-fire-aggika-jataka/

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