0117. How the Antelope Was Caught

From Eastern Stories and Legends by Marie L. Shedlock, online at: Baldwin Project.

Notes. The Pali title of this story is the Vatamiga Jataka, and these are the words spoken by the king in the Robert Chalmers translation:
There's nothing worse, men say, than taste to snare,
At borne or with one's friends. Lo! taste it was
That unto Sañjaya deliver'd up
The jungle-haunting antelope so wild.

Summary: A gardener uses honey to lure a wild antelope into captivity.

Read the story below:

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HOW THE ANTELOPE WAS CAUGHT

(antelope in India)

ONCE upon a time the King of Benares had a gardener named Sanjaya. Now, a swift antelope who had come to the garden took to flight as soon as it saw Sanjaya. But Sanjaya did not frighten it away; and when it had come again and again it began to walk about in the garden. And day by day the gardener used to pluck the various fruits and flowers in the garden and take them away to the King.

Now, one day the King asked him: "I say, friend gardener, is there anything strange in the garden so far as you’ve noticed?"

"I’ve noticed nothing, O King, save that an antelope is in the habit of coming and wandering about there. That I often see."

"But could you catch it?"

"If I had a little honey I could bring it right inside the palace here!"

The King gave him the honey; and he took it, went to the garden, smeared it on the grass at the spot the antelope frequented, and hid himself. When the deer came and had eaten the honey-smeared grass, it was bound with the lust of taste; and from that time went nowhere else, but came exclusively to the garden. And as the gardener saw that it was allured by the honey-smeared grass, he in due course showed himself. For a few days the antelope took to flight on seeing him.

But after seeing him again and again it acquired confidence, and gradually came to eat grass from the gardener’s hand. And when the gardener saw that its confidence was gained, he strewed the path right up to the palace as thick with branches as if he were covering it with mats, hung a gourdful of honey over his shoulder, carried a bundle of grass at his waist, and then kept sprinkling honey-smeared grass in front of the antelope till he led him within the palace.

As soon as the deer had got inside, they shut the door. The antelope, seeing men, began to tremble and quake with the fear of death, and ran hither and thither about the hall.

The King came down from his upper chamber, and, seeing the trembling creature, said: "Such is the nature of an antelope, that it will not go for a week afterwards to a place where it has seen men, nor its life long to a place where it has been frightened. Yet this one, with just such a disposition, and accustomed only to the jungle, has now, bound by the lust of taste, come to just such a place. Verily, there is nothing worse in the world than this lust of taste!"

And when in other words he had shown the danger of greed, he let the antelope go back to the forest.