During King Brahamadatta's reign in Benares, India there lived an old woman in one of the many villages around Benares. She was very poor. One day, a stranger came and wanted shelter in her house for the night. The next morning. before he left, the man gave the old woman a fine black calf as payment.
The name of the calf was Arya kakala and the old woman looked after it like a child. Arya kakala grew to be a fine young bull. He roamed the village with the other bulls. He played with the village children. The herd of bulls were looked after by herdsmen from the village.
Arya kakala knew that the old woman was poor and decided to do something to help her.
One day , a wealthy merchant came to the village on his way to a big city. He had 500 carts drawn by bulls. But when he wanted to cross the river he found that none of his bulls were able to draw the carts across. The river was deep and the bulls were not strong enough to wade in it.
The merchant looked around the village for help. His eyes fell on Arya kakala. He made inquiries about the strong, young bull and was told that it belonged to a poor, old woman and that she would not object to his getting Arya kakala to draw his carts across the river.
The nerchant promised to pay 1,000 gold pieces to the old woman for Arya kakala’s services.
The strong, young bull pulled all five hundred carts across the river and he was exhausted.
The merchant now did not want to pay 1,000 gold pieces to the old woman as promised. Instead, he tied 5,00 gold pieces in a piece of cloth and tied it around Arya kakala’s neck. The young bull was intelligent enough to realise that the craftry merchant had tricked the old woman. He was very angry.
He went and stood in the middle of the road blocking the way so that the merchant and his carts could not pass through. No one could move him.
Finally, the merchant tied the promised 1,000 gold pieces around Arya kakala’s neck and he allowed the carts to go.
He then went home accompanied by the herdsmen who told the old woman what had happened. She was happy and bathed the tired bull and rubed medicinal oil on him. She gave the bull good food and let him sleep.