In a certain town, there lived a cart-maker, by the name of Ujjwalaka. As he got no contracts, he became very poor and he thought to himself, ‘To hell with this poverty! All the other people in this town are engaged in one job or the other but I don’t get any suitable work.

Everybody else owns four- storyed buildings while I don’t have even a proper home to live in. What is the use of staying here!’

And so, the cart-maker and his family left the town to settle somewhere else. On the way, whilst they were still deep in the jungle, the sun set. Suddenly, the cart maker saw a female camel, suffering from labour. She had left behind by a caravan. Soon, she gave birth to a baby camel. The cart-maker tied the female with a rope, fetched a sharp hatchet and went to cut fresh tender leaves for her to eat. He put them in front of her and slowly she started feeding on them.

Next morning, when the female camel had partly recovered, the cart-maker took her and the baby camel with him to his new home. Under his proper care, the female camel fully recovered and the baby grew to full size. Fondly, the cart-maker tied a bell round the young camel’s neck. Everyday he would sell the female camel’s milk and, in this way, supported his family.

Then, he thought to himself, ‘Why should I take to any other profession, when I can well support my family merely by looking after this female camel and selling milk!’

So, he said to his wife, ‘My dear, this business is very profitable. If you agree, I shall borrow some money from someone wealthy and go to Gujarat to buy a young camel. Whilst I am away, please look after these two.’ His wife agreed.

So the cart-maker went to Gujarat and returned home after buying a young camel. Fortune smiled on him and in due course, he was the owner of quite a number of camels. He employed a servant to look after them and paid him one baby camel every year in return for his services. He also gave him free camel milk everyday to drink.

And so the cart-maker lived happily, looking after the camels and their young, and subsequently selling them. Every morning, the camels would graze in the jungle nearby and eat tender creepers and other goods things.
Then they would go to drink water from a big lake and afterwards return home, playing games on the way. Now the camel, with a bell round his neck, was conceited and used to trail behind the other camels, all on his own. When the others noticed this, they said, ‘This foolish fellow always strays away and walks behind us with his bell ringing. One day he will fall in the clutches of a wild beast.’

They all scolded him about this and tried to make him understand, but he took no notice of them. One day, a lion heard this ringing of a bell in the distance.

He followed the sound and saw a caravan of young camels moving ahead. They were going to drink water from a lake. But he observed that one, camel with a bell round his neck, had stayed behind, all alone and was still grazing. The others finished drinking and started off for home. This camel now began to stray in every direction and he lost his way.

The lion followed the sound of the ringing bell, overtook the camel and stood hiding in his path. When the camel came near enough, the lion sprang at him, struck him on the neck and killed him.

❖ A foolish person who refuses to follow a good advice surely comes to grief.

❖ Take heed of a good advice.