King Megharath of Pundarikini was holding court when a frightened pigeon flew through the open window and fell at his feet. Behind it, a hawk circled and asked the king to return its meal. "The bird that flies to a king for protection," replied Megharath, "is the king's ward." But the hawk too had hunger and a duty to its young. The king proposed an exchange: the hawk would take, from the king's own thigh, flesh exactly equal in weight to the pigeon. A scale was brought. The pigeon was placed in one pan. The king cut flesh from his leg and placed it in the other. The pigeon-pan would not rise. He cut more, then more — and still the scale would not balance. Finally Megharath stepped into the pan himself. Only then did the scale settle. The hawk and the pigeon, seeing this, returned to their true forms — celestial beings testing the king's vow of compassion. They blessed him and disappeared. In a later birth, this same soul was born as Bhagwan Shantinath, the sixteenth Tirthankar.