Jataka 12 Maluta

Maluta Jataka

Once on a time at the foot of a certain mountain there were living together in one and same cave two friends, a lion and a tiger. The Bodhisatta too was living at the foot of the same hill, as a hermit.

Now one day a dispute arose between the two friends about the cold. The tiger said it was cold in the dark half of the month, whilst the lion maintained that it was cold in the light half. As the two of them together could not settle the question, they put it to the Bodhisatta. He repeated this stanza:

In light or dark half, whensoe’er the wind

Doth blow tis cold. For cold is caused by wind.

And, therefore, I decide you both are right.

Thus did the Bodhisatta make peace between those friends.