Once the Bodhisatta was king of Bārāṇasī, and while walking about the city in disguise, he fell one night into the hands of drunken thieves. He pleaded poverty, gave them his robe and escaped. In the city lived his father’s former chaplain who had been dismissed. He told his wife how, as he watched the stars that night, he had seen the king fall into hostile hands and then escape. The king heard all this in the course of his wanderings and the following morning sent for his astrologers. They had not observed any such thing in the stars. He dismissed them therefore, appointed the other in their place, and gave him a boon. When the chaplain went home to consult his family as to what boon he should beg, his wife, his son Chatta, and his slave Puṇṇā, each wanted something different. He reported this to the king, who gave to each what he had desired.

The circumstances leading to the story are given in the Juṇha Jātaka. The Brahmin is identified with Ānanda. J.ii.426 ff.