Another great story of the Jataka Tales that I got to read this week was about The King’s White Elephant. This one showed, in my opinion, that good can come from working hard. I liked to read this one because it was useful for me to ponder over as I read it. When you work hard good things happen, and that is what happened in this Jataka. It starts with a great elephant who had a splinter in his fought hobbling over to some carpenters. The carpenters saw that he was hurt and aided the elephant by pulling out the splinter. Thankful for their help he decided to help the carpenters with pulling down trees and moving them around. He was happy to help since they helped him. The carpenters fed him well and treated him very well. When this elephant had a baby elephant that was all white, he told the young elephant to go help the carpenters because they helped him first. So the young white elephant helped the carpenters in the same way that his parent did. At the end of the day this white elephant would go into the river and play with the carpenters kids. That is when the king saw this elephant and loved its beauty. So he paid the carpenters for the elephant and it went home to the palace where it was kept very well. So really this story ends up being kinda sad in the fact that he leaves his play mates and his family. And it might actually be a story of the better of looks that you have the better chance good things would happen to you… I want to think otherwise so I have decided to think that it means the harder you work good things will happen to you.
The Elephant used to pull up trees for the carpenters.
The Jataka Tales of India
Ellen C. Babbitt
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