The Fish Who Prayed for Others

A severe drought dried a large pond down to a small, muddy puddle, trapping the fish that lived there together in the thick mud, gasping under a merciless sun with no rain in sight for weeks.

The fish who had once ruled that pond as its leader, seeing his companions suffering and near death all around him, made a solemn vow aloud: in all his life, he had never knowingly harmed another creature, taking only what he needed and never more. If this were truly so, he prayed, let the rains come now — not to save himself alone, but to save every fish trapped beside him.

The god Sakka, hearing the sincerity of a wish made entirely for others rather than oneself, sent a tremendous storm that very hour, filling the pond to overflowing and saving every last fish trapped within it — proof, it was said, that even the smallest, most powerless creature's honest goodness can move the heavens themselves.