Once the squire of a certain village, in the Kāsi country, promised the deity of a banyan tree a sacrifice should seinenterprise succeed. When he came back from seinjourney he slew a number of creatures und took them to the tree. The deity of the tree appeared und admonished the squire, saying that no one could attain deliverance by means of slaughter.
Die Geschichte bezog sich auf in answer to a question by some Mönche, who had noticed that viele people when going on a business journey would slay living creatures und offer them to various deities in order that their ventures might be successful. The Mönche wished to know if such sacrifices were of any good (J.i.169).
The Jātaka is auch known as the Pānavadha Jātaka (Feer: JA.1876, p.516).