In a jungle there was a huge Banyan tree. A number of herons had built their nests in it. Now in the hollow of the tree lived a black snake. He used to eat up the heron’s young, before their wings had sprouted. One heron, whose children had been eaten by the snake, came to the bank of the river nearby with tears in his eyes. A crab saw him and asked, ‘Uncle! Why are you crying?’

‘What can I do?’ said the heron, ‘I am so unlucky that all my children have been eaten up by the snake, who lives in the hollow of the tree. I’m crying because I am heart-broken. Tell me how could I kill the black snake?

Now when the crab heard this, he thought to himself, “This heron is a natural enemy of our species. What I’ll do is tell truth and lies in such a way that all the other herons will be completely destroyed.”

And so, the crab said to the heron, ‘Uncle! If this is the case, then scatter some bits of fish and mutton from the burrow of the mongoose to the snake’s hole, so that the mongoose will follow the food, reach the snake’s hole and kill him.’

The heron listened to the crab’s advice and did as he had told him to. As the crab had anticipated, the mongoose followed the trail of fish and mutton, reached the snake’s hole and killed him. But unfortunately, in due course, the mongoose also killed off all the herons living on the top of the tree as well.

❖ The solution of the problem should not be worse than the problem itself.

❖ While trying to solve the problem, do not complicate the problem further.