Category Archives: PANCHATANTRA TALES
70. WHO WILL BELL THE CAT
Once upon a time, there lived many mice in a grocers shop. There in the shop, they ate delicious wheat and rice, pulses and nuts, bread and butter and biscuits. They grew fat day by day.
One day, the grocer thought about the heavy losses that he had to suffer because of the menace of the mice. This angered him so much, that the next day, he brought a big fat cat to his shop.
The big fat cat began to catch and kill the fat mice everyday.
The mice became worried. They called a meeting to discuss the problem.
“Let’s get rid of this cruel fat cat,” the leader of the mice said.
“But how?” the other mice asked.
All of them began to think. Then one mouse said, “We should tie a bell round the neck of the fat cat. So, whenever she would move towards us, the bell would ring and we will run into our holes immediately.”
All the mice became very happy to hear this. They began dancing with joy. But their joy was short-lived. An old and experienced mouse interrupted their merry-making and shouted, Fools, stop it and tell me, who will bell the cat?
No mouse had the answer to this big question.
❖ Making a plan is one thing, but executing it is something entirely different.
69. THE JACKAL AND THE DRUM
Once upon a time, in a jungle there lived a jackal by the name of Gomaya. One day, he was very hungry and was wandering in search of food. While wandering, he came across a battle field. There he saw a big drum lying under a tree. When the wind blew, a tender branch grown at the root of the tree struck the drum producing sound of a drum beat. The jackal examined the drum from all sides and then beat the drum with his front paws. The drum made a sound. Now the jackal thought that there might be some other small animal inside the drum and that would make a very tasty meal for him. But he found the top of the drum too tough to tear off.
The jackal thought of a plan and began to beat the drum with both his front paws.The sound of drumbeat filled the whole jungle. A leopard who was attracted towards the sound of the drum, came near it. The jackal said to the leopard, “Your Majesty, there is some animal hiding inside the drum. Since you have sharp claws and strong teeth, you can tear off the top of the drum and catch your prey inside the drum.
The leopard was himself hungry So he hit the top of the drum with his heavy paws. The drum burst with a sound, but there was no animal inside. The drum was empty.
Seeing the empty drum, the leopard became very angry and said to the jackal, “You have wasted my time. There is no food inside the drum. So I will kill and eat you.”
The leopard pounced upon the jackal and killed and ate him.
❖ Greed is always harmful.
❖ Only the brave succeed in life.
68. THE JACKAL AND THE ARROW
Once a hunter was hunting in a forest. After sometime, he felt hungry. He saw a wild boar coming towards him. He shot an arrow at the boar. The arrow pierced the boar’s neck and protruded at its back.
But the boar, before falling on the ground, killed the hunter with his pointed tusks. Soon the hunter and the boar both were lying dead at the same spot.
At the same time, a hungry jackal happened to pass through that place. He saw a man and an animal, both lying dead there. ‘What a good luck I have? So much food to eat for days together’, thought the jackal to himself. He began to think whose flesh to eat first the man or the animal.
He decided to go slow at the eating, so that the food would last for a longer period.
The jackal decided first to lick the blood and eat a little flesh stuck round the tusks of the boar. But, as soon as, he put the pointed tip of the boars tusks in his mouth it pierced his jaws and went through his head. The jackal died on the spot.
❖ Greed never pays.
❖ Too much of greed is harmful.
67. THE IRON BALANCE ATE BY RATS
In a certain town, there lived a merchant’s son by the name of Jveernadhana. Because he had lost his money, he made up his mind to leave that part of the country and go somewhere else. Now in his house, the merchant’s son had a very heavy iron balance that he had inherited from his forefathers. He deposited this with another merchant and then left for a different part of the country.
