33. 'Well then, pour thy gifts down on the mendicants, satisfy them as a great rain-cloud fills the pools. By my favour thou shalt never experience the loss of thy wealth, and thou must forgive me my behaviour towards thee.'
After praising him so, Sakra restored his large estate to him, and obtained his pardon, then he disappeared on the spot.
In this manner, then, the virtuous do not allow themselves to be deficient in the virtue of charity either through regard to the loss of their fortune, or through the prospect of riches.
VI. The Story of the Hare.
(Comp. the Pâli Gâtaka, No. 316, Fausb. III, 51-56; Kariyâpitaka I, 10; Avadânasataka in Féer's transl. Ann. du Musée Guimet, XVIII, 142[52].)
The practice of charity according to their power by the Great-minded, even when in the state of beasts, is a demonstrated fact; who then, being a man, should not be charitable? This is taught by the following.
In some inhabited region of a forest there was a spot frequented by ascetics. It was beset with thickets made up of lovely creepers, grasses, and trees; abounding in flowers and fruits; adorned on its boundary with a river, the stream of which was as blue and as pure as lapis lazuli; its ground, covered with a carpet of tender grass, was soft to the touch and handsome to look at. There the Bodhisattva lived a hare.
1. In consequence of his goodness, his splendid figure, his superior strength, and his great vigour, not suspected by the small animals nor fearing others, he behaved like the king of animals in that part of the forest.
2. Satisfying his wants with blades of grass, he bore the handsome appearance of a Muni. For the ascetic's skin he wore his own, his bark-garment was the hairs of his body.