Parable 18: The Greedy, Conniving Crow

The Buddha was born as a bird and became their king.

Meanwhile, there was a crow who hopped along the highway, eating the food that humans dropped there. This crow told the other birds, "It's too dangerous to go there," but she kept going there anyway, greedy for food.

One day as the crow was eating, she saw a caravan coming down the highway. “I’ll fly away soon!” she said, but she kept on eating... and so she was crushed under the wheels of a wagon.

“The highway is dangerous," said the Buddha, "but being greedy is even more dangerous."

~ ~ ~

This is another jataka tale about one of the Buddha's previous births, and in this story, the Buddha is much more recognizably himself in this story, and we humans are much in need of learning this same lesson. This is the Anusasika Jataka; you can read a literal translation from the Pali here. In the story of the present, the Buddha is rebuking a greedy nun who warned others not to go to a certain quarter of the city to ask for alms so that she could gather all the alms there for herself... until she ended up with a broken leg. Here is how the Buddha transitions into the story of his past life: "As now, Brethren," said he, "so too in a past time she gave warnings which she did not follow herself; and then as now she came to harm." So saying, he told this story of the past.

a hooded carrion crow in the road