The Brahmins Who Revived the Lion

In a certain place four brahmins' sons lived as friends. Three of them were masters of the texts but had no judgement; the fourth had judgement only, and no taste for the texts.

Once they considered: "What is learning worth if we do not go abroad, please kings, and earn something? Let us go east."

A little way along the road the eldest said: "One of us — this fourth — has nothing but native wit and no learning; and without learning, mere wit gets no gifts from kings. So we shall not give him a share of what we earn; let him go home." The second said: "Clever one! Go back — you have no learning."

But the third said: "This is not right; we have played in the same place since we were children. Let him come — he shall have an equal share of whatever we earn. That is the generous course." ("This is mine, that is another's" — such reckoning belongs to small minds; to the generous, the whole world is family.)

So the four went on together. In a forest along the way they came upon the bones of a dead lion.

Then one said: "Let us test our learning today. Here is some creature lying dead; let us bring it to life by the power of what we know."

One said: "I know how to assemble the bones" — and he put the skeleton together. The second added skin, flesh and blood. And the third made ready to put life into it.

Then the man of judgement said: "Stop! This is a lion. If you bring it to life, it will get up and kill us all."

He answered: "Fool! I will not let my learning go to waste."

Then the man of judgement said: "Then wait one moment, while I climb this tree."

And when he had climbed it, the third gave the lion life — and it rose and killed all three of them and went away.

When the lion had gone, the man of judgement came down from the tree and went home.

So it is said: those who are skilled in the texts but know nothing of how the world works all end as laughing-stocks, like those learned fools.

वरं बुद्धिस्तथा विद्या विद्याया बुद्धिरुत्तमा । बुद्धिहीना विनश्यन्ति यथा ते सिंहकारकाः ॥

Moral: Judgement is the better thing, and judgement stands above learning — those without it perish, like the men who made the lion.

From the Panchatantra, Book V — Ill-Considered Action.