How did the fowler catch the qua
ils?
Answers
is a jataka story, part of the Pali canon.
Once upon a time, the boddhisattva was born as a quail and lived in the forest as the head of thousands of quails.
A fowler, who came to catch quails, used to imitate the note of a quail to attract the birds together. Then he flung his net over them to catch them all at once before going home to sell them for a living.
Observing this, the boddhisattva said to the quails, "This fowler is wreaking havoc on our kinsfolk. I have a way to avoid capture, but you all have to work together to make it a success. In the future, whenever the fowler throws the net over you, bring your head out through the mesh and fly away together to a thorn bush, where we can all escape."
"Very well, we will do accordingly," they all replied.
Next day, when the net was cast over them, they did just as the boddhisattva had asked them to do. They lifted up the net and dropped it on a thorn bush, escaping themselves from underneath.
The fowler had to return empty-handed after spending hours disentangling his net from the bush. Day-after-day the quails worked together to foul the fowler's plans and the