Once, during a festival in Bārāṇasī, some rogues were drinking and eating until late at night, and when the meat was finished, one of them offered to go to the charnel field and kill a jackal for food. Taking a club, he lay down as though dead. The Bodhisatta, then king of the jackals, came there with his flock, but in order to make sure that it was a corpse, he pulled at the club. The man tightened his grip, and the Bodhisatta mocked at his silliness. The man then threw the club at the jackals, but they escaped.

The story was told in reference to Devadatta, who is identified with the rogue. J.i.489 f.