93. THE PRINCE AND THE SEEDLING
Once there was a king whose son was very ill-tempered and bad mannered. The king, the courtiers and many other eminent citizens tried to reform the prince and make him understand the bad impression his ill manners and wicked ways would create on the public. But the prince paid no heed to their sensible advices.
92. THE PRINCE AND THE BEAR
Once a prince went to a jungle to hunt for animals. He wandered the whole day in search of prey but to his sheer disappointment and disgust he didn’t get a single animal, big or small. He became tired and sat under a tree to take rest. Just then he saw a tiger coming towards him. The prince got frightened and scrambled up a tree. There he saw a bear already sitting on a branch. The prince got badly terrified because, up there in the tree was sitting a bear and down on the ground was the tiger. The prince began to tremble with fear. But the bear said to the prince, “Don’t worry, my dear prince, I’ll not harm you, you’re my guest.'” The prince believed in what the bear said. But, the tiger was still waiting for him on the ground.
91. THE POTTER’S TRUTH
Long, long ago, in a village there lived a potter by the name of Yudhisthira. He was in a habit of drinking liquor. One day, he stumbled on a broken pot in a drunken state and fell down. The sharp edge of the broken pot pierced his forehead and he started bleeding profusely. He didn’t care much for his wound. The wound got worse. Even after it had healed, it had left a big scar on his forehead.
90. THE PEACOCK AND THE FOX
Once a fox was wandering in a forest. He saw a beautiful peacock sitting on the branch of a tree at a considerable height: ‘How can I have this peacock for my meal, thought the fox to himself. He knew, he could not climb up the tree to kill the peacock.
Applying his stratagem, the fox said to the peacock, “How is it that you are sitting in the tree? Don’t you know that it has been decided in a meeting of animals today that from now an animals and birds will not kill each other for food. Bigger fish will not eat smaller fish.”
