The Bodhisatta was once a landowner of Bārāṇasī, named Sujāta. When his grandfather died his father gave himself up to despair and, having erected a mound over the dead man’s bones, spent all his time offering flowers there. Wishing to cure him, Sujāta feigned madness, and, seeing a dead ox outside the city, put grass and water near it and kept on trying to make it eat and drink. News of this was carried to his father, who hurried to the spot. In the course of their conversation Sujāta convinced his father of his folly.

The story was told to a lay follower of the Buddha who, after his father’s death, gave himself up to grief. The Buddha visited him and told him this story.

J.iii.155-7. The story is given in PvA.39 f, but there it is related to the monks and not to the householder; he, however, became a Stream-winner.