they earned a living with difficulty as the servants of others, he thought to himself, "I have on my body golden feathers, which can be plucked or rubbed off, so I'll give them a single plume, on the proceeds of which both my wife and daughters will be able to live comfortably." Then he proceeded to where they lived, and alighted on the top of a bamboo. Both the brâhman-woman and her daughters on seeing the Bodhisat inquired, "From whence have you come here, sir?" "I am your father," he answered, "who died, and was reborn as a golden flamingo. I am come here to see you. Hitherto you have performed menial services for others, and have had a hard struggle to live, having no means of subsistence. From this time forth I'll give you a single plume. Take and sell it, and live comfortably on the proceeds." So saying, he gave them one plume, and departed. Going there at intervals, in the manner already described, he used to give them a single plume, by which means the brâhman-women became rich and contented.
After a while the brâhman-woman one day said to her daughters, "My dears, it is very difficult to understand the intentions of animals. Perhaps your father'll not come here again, but, when he does, let's take and strip all his feathers off." They objected, saying, "Our father shall not be so shamefully treated."
But one day, when the golden flamingo returned, the brâhman-woman, moved by great covetousness, said, "Just come here, husband." Seizing him with both hands, she plucked off all his plumes. But all those feathers, because they were stripped off by violence, without the consent of the Bodhisat, became just like the feathers of a crane.
The Bodhisat, though he stretched out his wings, was unable to fly away. Then the women threw him into a big jar, and gave him food. When his feathers grew again they turned out to be quite white. He, with his wings restored, flew up, and at once returned to his own quarters, and came back no more.
The Buddha's moral to this story is expressed in the following gâthâ:—
"Be content with what's given, seek not to get more,
O'er greedy the wicked, unsated they are;
When the good flamingo was stript of his plume,
His feathers of gold all their colour did lose."
