The Elephant And The Dog
This short moral story is from Jataka Tales and is an endearing one.
One day, the king’s royal elephant was grazing about the mound of hay and food, when it heard a hungry bark.
It was a dog who was eating the leftover food from the mahout’s plate. The elephant keeper was nowhere to be seen.
As the royal elephant was by itself in the shed every day, he didn’t mind the dog coming by to eat or have a nap.
Soon, they became good friends and would play about. Even the mahout didn’t mind.
One day, a farmer passing by saw the dog and asked the mahout if he could take the dog.
The mahout readily agreed and gave the dog away.
Soon, the royal elephant stopped eating, drinking water, or even moving. It didn’t move out of its shed.
On one such day, the king came to meet his elephant and called upon the royal doctor to check his elephant.
The royal doctor examined the elephant and said:” Your majesty, the royal elephant is physically fine, but looks sad as if it has lost a friend!”
The king immediately asked the mahout if anything had happened previously.
“Oh, there was a dog who used to be here. I gave it away to the farmer!” replied the mahout.
The king immediately sent one of his guards with the mahout to bring back the dog.
As soon as the dog was brought to the shed, the elephant sat up to see his little friend and trumped happily.
Since that day the elephant and the dog remained inseparable!
