At this time Sakka, king of heaven, thought "Who, I wonder, in this world of men support their parents, pay honour to the aged members of their family, give alms, keep the moral law and observe fast day? Which of them after adopting the religious life, continually devote themselves to the duties befitting priests, and which of them again are guilty of misconduct?" And exploring the world he spied this wicked ascetic keeping watch over his mangoes [138] and said, "This false ascetic, abandoning his duties as a priest, such as the process by which religious ecstasy may be induced and the like, is continually watching a mango orchard. I will frighten him soundly." So when he was gone into the village for alms, Sakka by his supernatural power knocked down the mangoes, and made as if they had been plundered by thieves. At this moment four daughters of a merchant of Benares entered the orchard, and the false ascetic on seeing them stopped them and said, "You have eaten my mangoes."

They said, "Sir, we have but just come. We have not eaten them."

"Then take an oath," he said.

"But in that case may we go?" they asked. "Certainly, you may."

"Very well, Sir," they said, and the eldest of them sware an oath uttering the first stanza:

She that did thy mangoes eat,
As her lord shall own some churl,
That with dye grey hairs would cheat
And his locks with tongs would curl.

The ascetic said, "Stand thou on one side," and he made the second daughter of the merchant take an oath, and she repeated the second stanza:

Let the maid that robbed thy tree
Vainly for a husband sigh,
Past her teens though she may be
And on thirty verging nigh.

And after she had taken an oath and stood on one side, the third maiden uttered the third stanza:

[139] She that thy ripe mangoes ate
Weary path shall tread alone,
And at trysting place too late
Grieve to find her lover gone.

When she had taken an oath and stood aside, the fourth maiden uttered the fourth stanza:

She that did thy tree despoil
Gaily dressed, with wreath on head,
And bedewed with sandal oil
Still shall seek a virgin bed.

The ascetic said, "This is a solemn oath you have taken; others must have eaten the mangoes. Do ye therefore now be gone." And so saying, he sent them away. Sakka then presented himself in a terrible form, and drove away the false ascetic from the place.

The Master, having ended his lesson, identified the Birth: "At that time this false ascetic was the old man who watched mangoes. The four merchant's daughters played the same part then as now. But Sakka was myself."