The Craving for Taste Once upon a time, the King of Benarcs had agardener who looked after his pleasure garden. Animalssometimes came into the garden from the nearby forest.The gardener complained about this to thc king, who said,If you see any strange animal, tell me at once. One day, he saw a strange kind of deer at the farend of the garden. When he saw the man, he ran like thewind. That is why they are called wind-deer. They are arare breed, that are extremely timid. They are very easilyfrightened by human beings. The gardener told the king about the wind-deer. Heasked the gardener if he could catch the rare animal. Hereplied, My lord, if you give me some bees honey, Icould even bring him into the palace! So the king orderedthat he be given as much bees honey as he wanted. This particular wind-deer loved to eat the flowersand fruits in the kings pleasure garden. The gardener lethimself be seen by him little by little, so he would be lessfrightened. Then he began to smear honey on the grasswhere the wind-deer usually came to eat. Sure enough, thedeer began eating the honey-smeared grass. Soon hedeveloped a craving for the taste of this honey-grass. Thecraving made him come to the garden every day. Beforelong, he would eat nothing else! Little by little, the gardener came closer and closerto the wind-deer. At first, he would run away. But later,he lost his fear and came to think the man was harmless.As the gardener became more and more friendly,eventually he got the deer to eat the honey-grass right outof his hand. He continued doing this for some time, inorder to build up his confidence and trust. |