Once a village doctor saw a snake lying in the fork of a tree and asked the Bodhisatta, who was then a village boy, to get it for him, telling him that it was a hedgehog. The boy climbed the tree and seized the animal by its neck, but, on discovering that it was a snake, threw it away. The snake fell on the doctor and bit him so severely that he died.

The story was told in reference to Devadatta’s attempts to kill the Buddha (J.iii.202 f). Elsewhere (DhA.iii.31 f), however, the story is told in reference to the hunter Koka (q.v.), with whom the doctor is identified.