The Bodhisatta was once a monkey, and one day, in the forest, he came across a man who had fallen into a pit while looking for his oxen and had lain there starving for ten days. The Bodhisatta pulled him out and then lay down to sleep. However, the man, very hungry, and wishing to eat him, struck his head with a stone, grievously wounding him. The monkey at once climbed a tree in order to escape, but realising that the man would be unable to find his way out of the forest, he jumped from tree to tree (in spite of his intense pain) and showed him the way out. The man became a leper, and wandered about for seven years until he came to the Migācira Park in Bārāṇasī and told his story to the king. At the end of his recital the earth opened and he was swallowed up in Avīci.

The story was related in reference to Devadatta’s attempt to kill the Buddha by hurling a stone upon him. The leper was Devadatta. J.v.67-74; cf. Jātakamālā, No.24.

The story is also called the Vevatiyakapi Jātaka.