In Banaras, the Bodhisatta was once born as a beautiful black calf. He was bought by an old widow who looked after him lovingly, feeding him rice and porridge. She named him Shyamu because of his colour. He grew up playing with all the village children, so they called him Granny’s Chamu. He wanted to work in order to help the kind widow who was very poor, but did not know what to do.
One day, while playing near the river with the children, he saw a caravan of five hundred carts trying to cross the river. Each cart had two bullocks pulling it. But they were unable to pull the carts across because the carts were heavily loaded. The man with the caravan looked around for help and saw Chamu near by. “This is a strong bull,” he thought, “He will be able to help; I’m sure.” He asked the local villagers whom the bull belonged to. They told him that he was Granny’s Chamu. “I’ll pay two gold coins for each cart he pulls across,” he promised.
Chamu thought that he could earn some money for the old lady whom he thought of as his Mother. So, he went forward to aid the man, who harnessed him to the first cart. Chamu pulled each of the five hundred carts one by one across the river to safety. The man made up a pouch with gold coins and hung it on Chamu’s neck.
But Chamu saw that he had put in only one coin for each cart, not two as he had promised. So, Chamu went and stood in the path of the carts and blocked them. Nothing would move him. The man knew he had been wrong, trying to cheat the bull. So, he quickly added another five hundred coins into the pouch.
“Now it was complete!” thought Chamu and he moved aside to let the caravan pass. With the children skipping along beside him and trying to get a few coins out of his pouch, Chamu went back to the old lady. She was very surprised when she saw what he had brought in the bag. She also saw how tired her Chamu looked. The children told her all about the caravan and how Chamu had earned the money by helping them. She hugged Chamu and had tears of happiness rolling down her cheeks. They were able to live all their days in comfort and happiness.
