The vulture was King Brahmadatta
By Manju Gupta

Once an owl and a vulture were engaged in an argument on the banks of 
a holy lake over the ownership of a particular house, with each 
claiming it to be his own. Soon they saw Lord Rama proceeding towards 
the lake for his evening prayers. They decided to seek Lord Rama's 
intervention and willingly agreed to accept his impartial verdict. So 
each of them explained his individual position and claim to the 
house, calling the other as the intruder. 

Lord Rama invited them to visit his court where in the presence of 
his ministers, Lord Rama asked both the owl and the vulture as to 
when they had built the controversial house. The vulture explained 
that he had built the house when the first humans appeared on Earth. 
The owl put forth his argument that he had built the house a long 
time ago when the trees first sprung up on Earth. After hearing the 
claims of the dissenting parties, the ministers pronounced that the 
owl was telling the truth while the vulture was in the wrong and 
needed to be punished. They, however, left the final decision upon 
Lord Rama to take. 

Just as Lord Rama was about to give his judgement, he heard a voice 
that advised him not to punish the vulture because in an earlier 
birth the vulture was a great king called Brahmadatta who was not 
only kind, but a philanthropist too. The voice narrated a story. It 
said that once a Brahmin went to the king's palace and asked for a 
meal. The king welcomed him and fed him. The Brahmin and his wife 
stayed on in the palace. Once the Brahmin's wife happened to be alone 
in the palace and the king lost control over his senses and tried to 
violate her. The Brahmin's wife managed to escape but when the 
Brahmin heard of the incident, he cursed the king. The king turned 
into a vulture. The king pleaded for mercy and the Brahmin relented a 
little to say that he could return to his original form as a king if 
Lord Rama blessed him. It was the same vulture that was once the 
famous King Brahmadatta. 

Upon hearing the voice Lord Rama looked at the vulture with 
compassion and at once it turned back into King Brahmadatta. Finally, 
the owl was given charge of the house that was very rightfully his 
and not the vulture's.