罠に迷い込んで魚に噛まれ負傷した水蛇が、蛙に魚が自分を攻撃したのは正しかったのかと尋ねると、魚は自分が彼らにするであろうことをただ仕返ししただけだと告げられ、それが魚をあおって彼にとどめを刺させることになるという本生譚で、パセーナディ王との戦争を通じて高揚と絶望の間で揺れ動いたアジャータサットゥ王の心情に関連して説かれた。

A Jātaka about a wounded water snake, bitten by fish after straying into their trap, who asks a frog whether the fish were right to attack him, only to be told they were merely repaying in kind what he would do to them, provoking the fish to finish him off, told about King Ajātasattu’s shifting moods of elation and despair through his war with Pasenadi.