The Foolish Crane and the Mongoose

Panchtantra Stories

The Foolish Crane and the MongooseIn the jungle, there lived a few cranes that had nested in a big banyan tree. In the hollow of the same tree, lived a cobra. The cobra used to fee on the eggs and young-born cranes. When the mother saw this, she began to weep. Moved at the sight of the crane in her sorrow, a nearby crab asked her the reason. The crane told the crab, "Every day, the cobra living in this tree is killing my children. I am not able to contain my grief. Please show me some way to get rid of this cobra." The crab then thought, "These cranes are our born enemies. I shall give her advice that is misleading and suicidal. That will see the end of all these cranes. Elders have always said that if you want to wipe out your enemy your words should be soft like butter and your heart like a stone.  Then the crab told the crane, "Uncle, strew pieces of meat from the mongoose's burrow to the hollow of the cobra. The mongoose will follow the trail of meat to the cobra burrow and will kill it." The crane did as the crab advised her. The mongoose came following the meat trail and killed not only the cobra but also all the cranes on the tree. "That is why," the king's men said, "if you have a strategy, you must also know what the strategy would lead to. Papabuddhi considered only the crooked plan but not what would follow. He reaped the consequences."  Karataka told Damanaka, "That's why like Papabuddhi you haven't foreseen what will happen if you went ahead with your plans. You have an evil mind. I knew it from your plans to endanger the life of our lord. Your place is not with us. If a rat had a 1000-pound scale for its lunch, is it any wonder that a kite carried away a child?"  "What about it," asked Damanaka. Karataka told him the following story.