Once, there was an atrocious young prince. The king tried his best to reform his son but all in vain. At last, Mahatma Buddha himself went to him to show him the righteous path. Buddha took him near a Neem sapling (margosa plant) and told,“Prince! Do eat a leaf of this plant and tell how it tastes?” The prince plucked a leaf of the plant and tasted it. His mouth was filled with bitterness. He at once spat it out and pulled out the plant from its very root.
Then, Buddha asked, “Prince! What have you done?”
The prince replied, “If this plant is so bitter at so tender an age, it will only become a poisonous tree when grown-up. It is proper to uproot such a bitter plant.”
Buddha said solemnly, “Prince! If public, afflicted from your bitter behaviour: also do the same with you, what would be
your fate? If you wish to thrive, you must become generous, kind and popular.”
Since that very day, the prince corrected himself and became good to all.
Pragya Puran,
Part-I,
Page 198.