Gautam Buddha, Two short stories

Gautam Buddha sat meditating in the open and as the sun scorched the Earth, he still was in deep meditation. A cobra saw this and spread its hood over the meditating Buddha. When Buddha came out of his deep meditation he saw the kind cobra shading him from the fierce sun, his heart was filled with love and he stroked the snake's hood. It is said that the marks on the hood of cobra are the marks of that affectionate stroking by Buddha

Once a woman, a follower o Buddha lost her son, she came to Buddha and wept on his feet to give her son life. Buddha was compassionate, he asked this woman to go and bring some rice from a household where there had been no death. The woman was hopeful and she went from house to house seeking for a single place where death had not visited. As she roamed the city asking for such a house, the truth Buddha wanted her to realise sank in and she came back to Buddha and devoted her life to meditation and serving Buddha.