The five-fold joys that from our senses spring
And parents dear and all abandoning,
For this cause came I in this wood to live;
How then can I the boon thou askest give?

Then the Great Being spoke this stanza:

Sages in speech duplicity ne'er show,
True to their promise are good men, we know:
[500] "Choose, friend, some boon" is what thou saidst to me;
What now thou sayst with this will scarce agree.

Once more, still weeping, the man-eater spoke this stanza:

Demerit, with disgrace and shame combined,
Misconduct, lust and sin of every kind,
All this, to eat man's flesh, I did incur:
Why then should I this boon on thee confer?

Then the Great Being said:

No one should claim to grant a boon and then
His promised word, false man, take back again:
Amongst these boons, my friend, all fearless choose;
I'll grant it thee, though life itself I lose.

When he had thus pointed out the stanza uttered in the first instance by the man-eater, to inspire him with courage to grant the boon, he spoke this stanza:

Good men will life give up, but never right,
True to their word e'en in their own despite;
If thou shouldst promise, best of kings, a boon,
Perfect thy work and see it done right soon .

One who to save a limb rich treasure gave
Would sacrifice a limb, his life to save,
[501] Yea, wealth, limbs, life and all away would fling,
Right and its claims alone remembering.

Thus did the Great Being by these means establish the man-eater in the Truth, and now to make clear to him his own title to respect he spoke this stanza:

One from whose lips a man the Truth may prove,
--Yea all good men that will his doubts remove
--A refuge sure is he, a rest, a stay;
The wise man's love for him should ne'er decay.

After repeating these verses he said, "My man-eating friend, it is not right that you should transgress the words of so excellent a master, and I, too, when you were young, acted as your private teacher and gave you much instruction, and now with all the charm of a Buddha I have repeated to you stanzas worth a hundred pieces each: therefore you ought to obey my words." On hearing this the man-eater thought, "Sutasoma was my teacher and a learned man, and I granted him the choice of a boon. What am I to do? Death verily is a certainty in the case of an individual existence. I will not eat human flesh but will grant him the boon he asks," and with tears streaming front his eyes he rose up and fell at king Sutasoma's feet, and in granting the boon he repeated this stanza:

[502] Sweet to my taste and pleasant is this food,
'Twas for this cause I hid within the wood;
But if thou askest me to do this thing,
This boon I'll grant to thee, my friend and king.