Once there was a great king by name Sibi. He was kind and good. He ruled the kingdom righteously and loved his people, and treated them as his own children. All other kings envied him as he had no complaints from his people, or from any of the other neighboring kingdoms. He showered love and kindness even to the birds and animals. He was very truthful and never ever went back on his words.
He was so popular and famous that even the Gods wanted to his honesty and sincerity. Once God of all gods, Indra wanted to test him. So he came along with Agni, another God, to the palace of King Sibi. Indra took the form of a vulture and was chasing a pigeon, which was Agni, another God in disguise, belonging to the regions of heavens. The pigeon was very nervous and was trembling when he saw a vulture chasing him. Flying fast he came to the palace grove of king Sibi and fell at his feet.
Sibi was very kind hearted. He could not tolerate an innocent bird being chased by a strong bird like Vulture. He took it in his arms and caressed the pigeon nicely. The bird looked at him and when it was caressed, it felt a little comforted. But the vulture came there to catch hold of its prey. It directly approached the king Sibi and showed its justifiable and absolute right to capture that bird. But Sibi was very clear in his mind. He convincingly told the vulture that it is not proper to be so cruel to other birds and animals. But the vulture was very adamant and it demanded the king had to give its prey back to it as it was very hungry.
King Sibi told the Vulture that he would give his own flesh to appease his hunger from his body equivalent to the weight of the pigeon. The vulture agreed to this transaction. Sibi brought a scale and kept the pigeon on one side and cut his own flesh from his body and kept it in the other side. This was not an ordinary situation. The scale went on showing the weight of the flesh from Sibi's body to be less than the weight of the pigeon. The king kept on giving more flesh from his body to balance the weight of the pigeon. Blood was flushing out of his body. But he was
not hesitant to give away his flesh. At last he placed the entire body on the scale, thus offering his whole body to the vulture. On seeing the kindness and benevolence of the king even the Gods became wonderstruck, and took their original form and praised the kind and the helping act of the king. They gave him back his body and the king became more blessed.
Source: Ramayanam
Moral : Honoring Promise is divine
