From the wonderful book of Buddha birth tales this story tells of when the Buddha was born as the monkey king and had to protect his monkeys from a water ogre.
The Hare looked up at the moon and said “I have an idea, tomorrow we should fast and offer all our food to any man who is hungry.”
“Simpleton! How on earth would you make it in the big wide world if we didn’t?!” Laughed his brothers. But Simpleton begged and nagged and eventually they let him go with them.