Week 15 Story

The Deer

There once was a family of deer who lived deep in the forest. They were a large family and had lived in this forest for a long time. They started to notice farmers moving into their forest. The deer saw the farmers as invaders. The farmers were taking up land that the deer would forage in and started to destroy the forest.
The family of deer tried to avoid the farmers as much as possible. However, a time came when they were running out of food. The youngest deer in the family told his parents that it is time for him to venture out and support their family. The parents were older now and could not provide as much as they used to be able to. They agreed to let the youngest deer leave. The parents were worried because the youngest deer was unique. He didn't have the traditional coloring that all the other members of the family had. The youngest had a white coat with ash spots. All his family were traditional in coloring, they had a light brown coat with white spots. Regardless of the worry the parents had, they let the youngest deer go.

The foragers had little success finding food for the rest of the group. The young deer decided to go further and look around the farmer's field. He found so much food! More than they have seen in months. So the young one got the rest of the foragers and they ate what they could. Then they took food back to the rest of the family.

Silhouette of a deer

What they didn't know is that the farmer saw the deer take his food. He also saw the young white deer and wanted to capture it. He decided to lay out a trap and wait until they came again.
The young deer was so excited to have a successful forage that he couldn't wait to go again. The parents were grateful to have their son provide for them.
The next day came, the foragers went out again to the farm. To the farmer's plan the young deer got caught in the trap. The others ran away in fear, leaving the young one behind. The farmer came to the beautiful white deer and was in awe of his unique color.
The farmer asked, "Why are you stealing my food?"
The deer was shaking with fear, but got the courage to speak, "You stole our foraging grounds. I am just here to provide for my family. Please let me go back to my family."
The farmer felt for the deer. He too was providing for his family. He decided to make a deal with the deer. "You can come here and eat from the far fields so that you and your family will not have to fear being hungry."
And so, the family of deer and the farmer coexisted for a long time. The deer didn't have to worry about food and the farmer got to watch the beautiful deer come to the farm to eat. They lived a happy life.


Author's Note- I took inspiration from The Young Parrot, which is a Jataka Tale. The original story was about a beautiful parrot who provided for his parents. The parrot got caught by the person who he was taking food from. The person let the parrot go as long as he came back to take food from the person. They struck this deal because the person wanted to see the beauty of the parrot. I switched the parrot to a deer. However, I kept a similar theme, "Help your parent's in their old age."

The young parrot
Twenty Jātaka tales, retold by Noor Inayat