Ja 137 The Story about the Cats
(Babbujātaka)
In the present a married daughter visits her mother and is importuned so long she loses her husband. The Buddha tells how a mouse in the past had to share her meat with four cats, until she found a way to dispense with them (full story).
1. Yattheko labhate babbu, dutiyo tattha jāyati,
Tatiyo ca catuttho ca, idaṁ te babbukā bilan-ti.
Where one cat receives, a second appears right there, a third and a fourth, this is the cat’s crystal cave.
In this connection, where means in whatever place.
A second appears right there means wherever one receives a mouse or meat, a second cat also right there appears, arises, and then a third and a fourth. Thus at that time there were four cats. After eating meat day by day those cats banged their chests on this cave made of crystal, and all came to the destruction of their lives.