The Demon with the Vow

Near a certain forest lived a demon named Chandakarma. Once, roaming about, he came upon a brahmin. He climbed onto the man's shoulders and said: "Walk on!"

Sick with fear, the brahmin carried him and walked.

As they went, the brahmin noticed that the demon's feet were as soft as lotus stalks. He asked: "Why are your feet so soft?"

The demon said: "I keep a vow: I never touch the earth with a wet foot."

At that a plan came into the brahmin's mind.

A little further on the demon said: "Do not move from this spot until I have bathed and made my offering to the god." And so saying he went off to a lake to bathe.

Then the brahmin thought: "When his worship is done he will certainly eat me. Let me go quickly — because of his vow he cannot follow me over the ground with wet feet."

And he ran. And the demon, afraid of breaking his vow, did not go after him.

So it is said: a knowing man should always be one who asks.

प्रच्छकेन सदा भाव्यं पुरुषेण विजानता । राक्षसेन्द्रगृहीतोऽपि प्रशाखामुक्तो द्विजः पुरा ॥

Moral: A knowing man should always be one who asks: even a brahmin in a demon-lord's grip once got free by asking.

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