King Shibi

King Shibi was famous for his kindness. Once Indra and Dharmraaj decided to test him. Indra took the form of a pigeon and Dharmraaj took the form of a hawk. One day king Shibi was sitting in his court. All of a sudden that the pigeon came flying and fell into Shibi's lap for protection. The pigeon was badly injured. In the meantime the hawk also came following him. He saw the pigeon hiding in king's lap and asked Shibi to returned back the pigeon. But Shibi declined to return it to hawk as it was duty of the king to protect anyone who seek help. He decided to sacrifice his own body as a prey to hawk. A weighing scale was brought and the pigeon sat in one pan of the balance. Shibi cut off his arms and put it on the other pan. But the pigeon's weight outweighed Shibi's flesh. So king Shibi cut off legs and put it on the pan to balance the pigeon's weight. But once again, the pigeon outweighed the flesh. Ultimately, king Shibi ordered that his bleeding body be put on the pan. As soon as this was done, Indra and Dharmaraj too appeared in their original forms. Gods blessed the King Shibi and he ruled for many year