Hearing him, the Bodhisatta said, "Great king, your sorrow is but a trifling sorrow. Of old, a brahmin goatherd, named Dhumakari, took a great flock of goats, and making a pen in the forest kept them there: he had a smoking fire and lived on milk and the like, tending his goats. Seeing some deer of golden hue who had come, he felt a love for them, and disregarding his goats he paid the honour due to them to the deer. In the autumn the deer moved away to the Himalaya: his goats were dead and the deer gone from his sight: so for sorrow he took jaundice and died. He paid honour to new-comers and perished, having sorrow and misery a hundred, a thousand times more than you." Bringing forward this instance, he said,

A brahmin with a flock of goats, of high Vasittha's race,
Kept smoking fire by night and day in forest dwelling-place.

Smelling the smoke, a herd of deer, by gnats sore pestered, come
To find a dwelling for the rains near Dhumakari's home.

The deer have all attention now; his goats receive no care,
They come and go untended all, and so they perish there.

[402] But now the gnats have left the wood, the autumn's clear of rain:
The deer must seek the mountain-heights and river-springs again.

The brahmin sees the deer are gone and all his goats are dead:
Jaundice attacks him worn with grief, and all his colour's fled.

So he who disregards his own, and calls a stranger dear,
Like Dhumakari, mourns alone with many a bitter tear.

Such was the tale told by the Great Being to console the king. The king was comforted and pleased, and gave him much wealth. From that time onward he showed favour to his own people, and doing deeds of charity and virtue, he became destined for heaven.

After the lesson, the Master identified the Birth: "At that time the Kuru king was Ananda, Dhumakari was Pasenadi, king of Kosala, and Vidhurapandita was myself."

.