Jataka 102 Pannika

Pannika Jataka

Once on a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, the Bodhisatta was a Tree Sprite in a forest. And a lay follower who was a greengrocer of Benares had just the same doubts of his daughter, and all fell out as in the introductory story. And as her father took hold of her hand the weeping girl repeated these verses:

He that should prove my buckler strong,

My father, worketh me this wrong

Forlorn in thickest wood I cry

My helper proves my enemy.

Then her father calmed her fears, and asked whether she was a virgin. And when she declared that she was, he brought her home and made a feast and gave the girl in marriage.