Therigatha (Psalms of the Sisters) - Famous traditional story

Kisagotami was married to a banker's son of considerable wealth. As a young wife, Kisagotami was mistreated by her in-laws ... When she gave birth to a son, she finally received an honorable place among her husband's relatives. But her child died while still a toddler and Kisagotami, who had never seen death before, went mad.

In her state of insanity, Kisagotami took up the dead child and carried him on her hip from house to house, begging for medicine. Once kind old man directed her to Buddha Sakyamuni.

The Buddha said, "Go and bring a white mustard seed from a house where no one has died." Hearing his words, she immediately rushed off in the innocent faith that, if she brought a white mustard seed to his enlightened sage, it would be the medicine that could miraculously bring her child back to life.

Kisagotami went from house to house, at each house asking, and at each house learning that there too, someone had died. The truth struck home. Her sanity returned.

"Little son," she said. "Ithought that death had happened to you alone; but it is not to you alone. It is common to all people." ...She carried him gently to the forest and left him there. (Susan Murdock, The First Buddhist Women, p.85.)