The Legends of the Bodhisattva offering his own body for one verse (or a half-verse) have been studied in both Buddhist studies and Art History. In conventional studies on this narrative, there is one tale-motif which was not taken notice of at all in the past. That is the motif of “writing a verse.” I call the narrative including this motif “the legend of writing a verse heard in exchange for one’s own body.” In this paper, I collect eight parallel stories (of which three are new discoveries), offer a motif comparison table of each story, and consider the meaning of “writing” the Buddha-dharma.