Category Archives: PANCHATANTRA TALES
30. THE CAT, THE RAT AND THE HUNTER
Once upon a time, there lived an owl in a big banyan tree. A mouse, a cat and a mongoose also shared his neighbourhood. They all feared each other. The owl was scared of the cat. The mouse would be frightened to see the owl, the cat or the mongoose. The owl and the cat were the enemies of the mongoose. But despite all these problems, all of them continued living at the same place.
Once a hunter came under the banyan tree. He spread his snare there and waited at a distance for some animal to be trapped in. After sometime, the cat came there looking for the mouse. She stepped on the snare and got trapped. Seeing the cat in the net the mouse became happy and came out of his hole and began taking rounds of the trap in great joy.
29. THE CAT AND THE HARE AND THE PARTRIDGE
As related by a partridge:
“One upon a time, I was living in a certain tree. In the hollow, at the foot of the tree, lived a partridge, by the name Kapinjala. In the course of time, we became good friends. Every day, at sunset, we would return home and tell each other stories about the holy men and such things, and talk over together about what had happened during the day. In this way, we passed our time very nicely.
28. THE CAPSELLER AND THE MONKEYS
Once upon a time, a cap seller was travelling by walk through a forest to a nearby village. It was a very sunny day so he decided to lie down under a tree and take rest for sometime till the sun sets down. As he was very tired he slept quickly.
When he was sleeping a group of monkeys came down the tree and pulled the cap seller’s bag. They opened the bag and found the colorful caps inside it. The monkeys picked up the caps and climbed back up the trees. The cap seller woke up after sometime and was shocked to find his opened bag and the monkeys all having his caps.
27. THE CAMEL WITH A BELL ROUND HIS NECK
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!’
