Somewhere in the country, under a banyan tree, there lived a pair of crows, husband and wife. Now, whenever the female hatched her eggs, a snake would come out of the hollow of the tree, climb up, and make a meal of them. Nearby, under another banyan tree, there lived a jackal.

The crows told jackal everything. ‘Friend. The snake creeps out of the hollow of the tree, climbs up and eats up our children. Tell us, what can we do to protect our children ? It’s become dangerous for us to live here.’

‘Don’t give up hope’, said the jackal, ‘it is a fact that a powerful enemy can be destroyed by a trick.’

The crow said, ‘Friend, do tell us how we can kill this wicked cobra.’

‘Well’, said the jackal, ‘go to a city that is the capital of a kingdom. Visit the house of some wealthy man, a minister or someone, and see if he has been careless enough to leave a gold chain or a necklace lying about. Pick it up, and making sure that the servants are watching you, fly off slowly with it and drop it in the hollow of the tree where the cobra lives. When the servants run after you to recover the necklace , they will see the cobra and it’s certain, they will kill him.’

The crows decided to take the jackal’s advice and flew off. As they were flying, the female crow noticed a lake, in which the women of the harem were swimming. They had left gold and pearl necklaces with their clothes on the banks of the lake. The female crow picked up a gold chain in her beak and started flying slowly to her nest. When the eunuchs saw this, they picked up their sticks and started running after the female crow.

She let the gold chain fall near the hollow of the tree where the cobra lived and seated herself on a tree nearby. When the king’s servants arrived on the scene, they were confronted by a cobra with swelling hood, before the hollow of the tree. They killed the cobra with sticks, recovered the gold chain and returned home. And the crows lived happily ever.

❖ Even a very powerful enemy can be destroyed through deceit.

❖ Intelligence wins over might.

❖ Never act hastily on your enemy’s advice.