When he had become old, he called them, and said, “My beloved! I am old. Do you now lead the herd about.” And he placed five hundred of the deer under the charge of each of his sons.
Now in the land of Magadha at crop time, when the corn is ripening in the fields, there is danger brewing for the deer in the adjoining forest. Some in one place, and some in another, the sons of men dig pit-falls, fix stakes, set traps with stones in them, and lay snares to kill the creatures that would eat the crops. And many are the deer that come to destruction.
So when the Bodisat saw that crop time was at hand, he sent for his sons, and said, “My children! the time of growing crops has come; many deer will come to destruction. We are old, and will get along by some means or another without stirring much abroad. But do you lead your herds away to the mountainous part of the forest, and return when the crops are cut!”
“Very well,” said they; and departed with their attendant herds.
Now the men who live on the route they have to follow know quite well, “At such and such a time the deer are wont to come up into the mountains; at such and such a time they will come down again.” And lurking here and there in ambush, they wound and kill many deer.
But Brownie, in his dullness, knew not that there were times when he ought to travel and times when he ought not; and he led his herd of deer early and late alike—at dawn, or in evening twilight—past the village gates. The men in different places—some in the open, some in ambush—destroyed, as usual, a number of the deer. So he, by his stupidity, brought many of his herd to destruction, and re-entered the forest with diminished numbers.
Beauty, on the other hand, was learned and clever, and fertile in resource; and he knew when to go on, and when to stay. He approached no village gates; he travelled not by day, nor even at dawn or by evening twilight; but he travelled at midnight, and so he reached the forest without losing a single animal.
There they stayed four months; and when the crops were cut they came down from the mountain-side. Brownie, going back as he had come, brought the rest of the herd to destruction, and arrived alone. But Beauty, without losing even one of his herd, came up to his parent attended by all the five hundred of his deer.
And when the Bodisat saw his sons approaching, he held a consultation with the herd of deer, and put together this stanza,—
The righteous man hath profit, and the courteous in speech.