The Demon With The Matted Hair

Intro

This is one of the oldest South-Asian Buddhist tales — and the Indian root of the worldwide “tar-baby” family (ATU 175). For kids we keep the sticky-weapon comedy and the gentle ending: the ogre is taught, not slain. Age 6–8+ (soft 9–12 OK) — not Ages 3–5.

Story

### The prince and the five gifts

Long ago a prince of Benares studied at Takkasila until his teacher gave him five weapons — bow and arrows, sword, spear, club, and dagger — and sent him home. The road cut through a great forest. Villagers begged him to wait for a caravan. He thanked them and went on alone.

### Sticky-hair in the trees

In the middle of the wood stood an ogre tall as a young palm. His mane dripped like treacle in the rains. His name was Silesaloma — Sticky-Hair. He roared. The prince named himself: I am Five-Weapons Prince. I have come to stop you hurting travellers.

He shot. Every arrow stuck in the gluey hair. He swung the sword — it stuck. Spear, club, dagger — each stuck. He struck with both fists — stuck. Both feet — stuck. He butted with his head — stuck. Now prince and weapons hung on the ogre like a strange necklace.

### The sixth weapon

Most travellers would have cried. The prince laughed.

Why laugh when you are about to be eaten? asked Sticky-Hair.

Because I still have a sixth weapon, said the prince. It is inside me. If you swallow me, that thunderbolt will break you from within. We both lose — or you let me go.

The ogre had heard fear, bribes, and curses. He had never heard quiet certainty. He thought: If the boy tells truth, I die. If he lies, he is still the bravest soul I have met. He peeled the prince free, returned every weapon, and stepped back.

### Precepts on the path

The prince did not run. He sat on a fallen log and taught Sticky-Hair five simple promises: do not kill, do not steal, do not harm others in love, do not lie, do not cloud the mind with strong drink. The ogre repeated each line. From that day he guarded the forest road instead of hunting it. Travellers left rice at a small shrine. The prince walked home to Benares — and the Buddha, telling the story long afterward, said the ogre of that birth was the same fierce spirit he later taught at Alavi, and the prince was himself.