The Banyan Deer's Exchange

Two great deer herds, one led by the golden Banyan Deer and the other by a deer named Branch, lived in a king's private forest. To spare the herds from being hunted in panic, both deer kings agreed that one deer from each herd would be sent, by turns, to the royal kitchen each day.

One day, the lot fell to a pregnant doe in Branch's herd, who begged to be spared until after her fawn was born, offering to go the moment it was safe to leave her baby. Branch refused to intervene, insisting the order of the lot could not be broken for anyone.

Desperate, the doe went instead to the Banyan Deer, who listened to her plea and, unable to bear the injustice, walked to the royal kitchen himself and offered his own life in her place. The king, astonished that a deer would sacrifice himself for another's unborn child, was so moved that he ended the entire arrangement on the spot, granting sanctuary to every deer in his kingdom from that day forward.