In a past life Bhagwan Shantinath, the sixteenth Tirthankar, was born as King Meghrath, ruler of a prosperous land. He was famous for one thing above all others: he would not refuse shelter to any creature that asked for it. One day, while he held court, a pigeon flew through the open window and dropped onto his lap, panting, its little heart beating wildly. "Save me," it cried. "A hawk is hunting me." The king said, "You are safe. No one will harm you here." Almost at once the hawk came through the same window. "King," said the hawk, "the pigeon is my food. If you keep my food from me, you will be the cause of my death, and many more besides — for I have young chicks waiting in the nest." The king sat very still. Both creatures had a true claim. Then he said, "Hawk, I cannot give you this pigeon. But I will give you flesh of equal weight from my own body." A scale was brought. The pigeon sat on one side. The king cut a piece of flesh from his thigh and placed it on the other. The scale did not move. He cut another piece. Still the scale did not move. Slice after slice the king gave, until at last he stepped onto the scale himself. The scale balanced. The hawk vanished. So did the pigeon. In their place stood two devas who had come to test him. They bowed. "There is no king in any of the three worlds whose word for the weak is firmer than yours." The king's body was healed in a moment, but the line he had drawn that day — that the safety of any one creature is worth the cost of one's own comfort — was the line he would carry into every birth, all the way to becoming a Tirthankar.