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The Ox Who Won the Forfeit

  • 3-4 min read
  • 13 pages

The ox who won the forfeit, a Jataka tale to read aloud. He can pull a hundred carts, and the only thing that stops him is how he is asked.

A man had an ox he had raised from a calf, and he had fed him on rice porridge and never once beaten him, and the ox was the…

A man had an ox he had raised from a calf, and he had fed him on rice porridge and never once beaten him, and the ox was the strongest animal in that district.

One day the ox said: «You have looked after me all my life.

One day the ox said: «You have looked after me all my life. Go to the rich merchant and bet him a thousand pieces that I can pull a hundred loaded carts.»

So the man went and made the bet, and the merchant took it, because a hundred carts is a great many carts.

So the man went and made the bet, and the merchant took it, because a hundred carts is a great many carts.

They lined them up on the road, tied together, loaded with sand and gravel, and they harnessed the ox to the front one in…

They lined them up on the road, tied together, loaded with sand and gravel, and they harnessed the ox to the front one in front of a crowd.

And then the man, who had never spoken to the ox that way in his life, picked up a stick and shouted: «Pull, you brute!

And then the man, who had never spoken to the ox that way in his life, picked up a stick and shouted: «Pull, you brute! Pull, you wretched thing!»

The ox did not move. He stood in the harness with his feet planted and did not shift one cart's width, and the man lost his…

The ox did not move. He stood in the harness with his feet planted and did not shift one cart's width, and the man lost his thousand pieces in front of everybody and went home with nothing.

He sat in the yard with his head in his hands.

He sat in the yard with his head in his hands.

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Text source: From the Jataka tales, the Indian collection of birth stories written down in Pali from around 300 BC. Public domain. The text was written anew for Marytale — it is not a reprint of anyone else's version.

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