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Cariyapitaka · Story 16

Ruru the Deer King’s Conduct

Ruru Cariyā — The Chapter on an Elephant · The Perfection of Ethics (6th of 10)

Setting
No external narrative frame; the Buddha speaks in the first person about his past life as Ruru, a golden deer king living on the banks of the Ganges
Speaker
The Buddha, recounting his life as Ruru, with quoted dialogue between himself and the man he rescues
Form
Twelve verses of first-person narration
Length
1–2 minutes to read
Northern parallel
This reading guide does not assert a specific matching text for this story in other Buddhist literatures.
Difficulty
★★★☆☆ — a story of betrayal that goes further than simple restraint

Why this text

Where most of this chapter's stories show restraint against a threat, this one shows something further: Ruru saves a drowning man at real risk to his own life, is betrayed by that same man for money, and then, when the king arrives to kill the betrayer, actively steps in to protect him — not mere non-retaliation, but forgiveness that intervenes on the wrongdoer's behalf.

Reading guide

A rescue at real cost

Hearing a man's pitiful cries from the Ganges, Ruru enters the river at night, ‘surrendering his own life’, and drags the man out — a man who had jumped in fleeing creditors, thinking ‘I live or I die’.

One favor asked, and broken

Ruru's only request afterward is discretion: ‘tell no-one about me.’ Once safely back in the city, the man breaks this single condition for money, leading the king directly to Ruru.

The king ready to kill the informer

When the king learns what the man did, his response is not to hunt Ruru gently but to prepare an arrow for the informer himself, calling him ‘this ignoble betrayer of a friend’ — the story briefly puts the betrayer, not Ruru, in mortal danger.

Protection extended to the betrayer himself

Ruru's response goes beyond forgiving an insult already absorbed: he actively intervenes, ‘substituting himself’ to stop the king from killing the man who had just betrayed him, asking only to ‘carry out your pleasure’ instead — ethics maintained not by enduring harm passively, but by stepping between a wrongdoer and their punishment.

Key terms

sīla — “ethics” or “precepts” — the perfection this story illustrates, the sixth of ten stories on this theme.
Ganges — the river along whose bank Ruru lives, and from which he rescues the drowning man.
cariyā — “conduct” — this collection's title, and the word used for each of its thirty-five stories, this one its sixteenth.
bodhi — “awakening” — named as the reason Ruru gives for guarding his ethics rather than his own life, in the story's closing verse.
mitta-dubbhī — “betrayer of a friend” — the king's own description of the man who broke Ruru's one request, shortly before Ruru intervenes to save him from the king's arrow.

The text

The text in full: twelve verses, including the rescued man's explanation and the king's response. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).

§1“Then again when I was the king of deer named Ruru, in appearance I was like burnished gold, focused on the highest ethics.

§2There was a pleasant, delightful region, free of humans, so I went there and stayed on a lovely bank of the Ganges.

§3Then a man upstream, harassed by creditors, fell into the Ganges, thinking, ‘I live or I die!’

§4Day and night in the Ganges he was swept along the stream, crying out pitifully, along the middle of the Ganges.

§5When I heard the sound of his pitiful crying, I stood on the Ganges bank and asked, ‘What man are you?’

§6When asked he explained to me his own deed: ‘I was so scared of my creditors, I jumped in the great river!’

§7Taking pity on him, surrendering my own life, I entered and dragged him out in the darkness of the night.

§8When I knew he had recovered, I said to him, ‘I ask of you one favor: tell no-one about me.’

§9But once he had returned to the city, for the sake of money he told when asked. Taking the king, he drew close to me.

§10All that I had done was related to the king. When the king heard this, he fitted his arrow, thinking, ‘Right here I shall kill this ignoble betrayer of a friend.’

§11I protected him, substituting myself: ‘Let him be, great king. I shall carry out your pleasure.’

§12I guarded my ethics, not my life. For then I was ethical, because it was solely for awakening.”

· · ·

Self-check quiz

Ten questions. Click an answer to see immediate feedback. No score is recorded — this is for your own checking.

Question 1 of 10
Why had the man Ruru rescues jumped into the Ganges in the first place?
Correct: B. Desperate enough to risk drowning rather than face them.
Question 2 of 10
At what risk does Ruru rescue the man?
Correct: B. A real cost, not a casual gesture.
Question 3 of 10
What single favor does Ruru ask of the man afterward?
Correct: B. A request the man later breaks for money.
Question 4 of 10
Why does the man reveal Ruru's location to the king?
Correct: B. Breaking his one promise for personal gain.
Question 5 of 10
How does the king react on learning what the man did?
Correct: B. Briefly putting the betrayer, not Ruru, in mortal danger.
Question 6 of 10
What does Ruru do when the king is about to kill the informer?
Correct: B. Going beyond enduring the betrayal to actively protecting the betrayer.
Question 7 of 10
How does this story's ending go further than simple non-retaliation?
Correct: B. Forgiveness that intervenes, not merely restraint absorbed.
Question 8 of 10
What does Ruru say he guarded, rather than his own life?
Correct: B. 'I guarded my ethics, not my life... because it was solely for awakening.'
Question 9 of 10
Where does Ruru live, as described at this story's opening?
Correct: B. Chosen deliberately for its distance from people.
Question 10 of 10
What perfection does this story illustrate?
Correct: B. Continuing the sequence of ten ethics-stories in this chapter.
Answered 0 of 10 · Correct 0

Further reading

← PreviousCp 15 · The Buffalo King’s Conduct