The Vessantara Jataka is the last and greatest of the birth stories and by far the most performed: in Thailand and Laos the full recitation is an annual event that can occupy an entire day and draws people who attend nothing else. It is also the one that makes modern audiences most uncomfortable, because the prince gives away his children to a brahmin who beats them, and his wife after. The traditional reading is that the perfection of giving must be tested where it costs most; a growing modern reading takes Maddi's point of view seriously and treats the discomfort as the story working rather than failing.