The Life Stories of the Monks – 2055 

 

 

The elephant was not merely showing them the noble calf but it meant to make a 
gift of it to the benefactors. To make its intention clear, it left the place alone. 

The calf followed it but the father elephant gave a signal to the calf to go back 
to the men. The calf obeyed. The men then said to the calf: “Dear boy, we have 
no use with you. Just go back to your father.” The calf went back but the father 
would not take him back. Three times the carpenters sent him back, only to be 
refused by the father. So they were obliged to keep it. The 500 carpenters each 
gave a handful of cooked 

[1358]

 rice to the calf which was sufficient 

nourishment for it. It would help them by piling up the cut-up logs, ready to be 
rafted. 

The commentary on the Collection of the Numerical Discourses 
(

Aṅguttara-nikāya

) relates the story up to this point only, to show the sense 

of gratitude of Ven. Sāriputta when he was an elephant. We now continue 
the story as described in the Birth Story (Ja 156). 

From that time on, the white elephant calf became part of the team of 
carpenters. Obeying their commands, he assisted them in all their tasks. The 
carpenters fed him with their share of cooked rice. At the close of the day’s 
work, the men and the calf went into the river to bathe and play together. 

There is a noteworthy thing about noble elephants or noble horses or noble 
humans: they never defecate or urinate in the water, but go up to dry 
ground for the purpose. 

One day, a great torrent came down from upstream to Bārāṇasī. In that current, 
there floated down a piece of dried dung excreted by the white calf, and was 
caught in a bush at the public washing place in Bārāṇasī. The tenders of the 
royal elephants brought to the river 500 elephants to be washed. These elephants 
sniffed around, got the smell of the dung of the white elephant and panicked. 
They dared not enter the water but tried to run away with raised tails. The 
elephant tenders reported the strange behaviour of the elephants to the 
physicians in charge of elephants. They knew that there must be something in 
the water that caused the panic of the king’s elephants. A close search was made 
and they discovered the piece of dung in the bush. Thus, the reason for the fright 
of the 500 elephants was ascertained. A big jar was filled with water and in it the 
white elephant’s dung was made to dissolve. The 500 elephants were then