While Brahmadutta ruled Benaras, there was a village of carpenters. They went in small boats to a forest, where they cut down trees, got the timber they wanted, and brought it away in their boats.
This forest was the home of a cow elephant. One day a large piece of wood got into its foot. The elephant began to suffer from intolerable pain. Wandering in the forest restlessly, she heard the carpenters cutting down trees, sawing the wood and so forth. She limped to where the carpenters were at work. They saw the elephant was suffering.
They stopped all work and attended on the elephant that lay down before them. They deftly pulled out the piece of wood from her foot, and bandaged her leg. The elephant got well soon. She began to help them in various ways. She would pull the trees that were felled, roll the logs to the water’s edge, and load the planks into the boats. The friendship between the carpenters and the grateful elephant grew.
In course of time, the elephant gave birth toa white elephant. When the mother-elephant became too old to be of much help, she left her baby to the care of the carpenters and went away.
Now it was the turn of the white elephant to serve the carpenters. He helped them in their work, gave rides to the children on his back, bathed them in the river and looked after them. The carpenters loved him like a child.
King Brahmadutt came to know about the strange white elephant that lived in the forests of his kingdom. He wanted to possess it. Followed by a long retinue, he went to the forest where the carpenters obtained their timber. They saw the king."Your majesty," they said,"if you had sent word to us, we would have brought to you all the timber you wanted."
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