The Donkey in the Tiger Skin
A washerman throws a dead tiger's skin over his starving donkey and turns him loose in the barley fields at night. The guards keep their distance.
In a certain place lived a washerman named Shuddhapata. He had a single donkey, which had grown very weak for want of fodder.
Once, walking about, the washerman came upon a dead tiger. He thought: "This is excellent. I shall throw this tiger's skin over my donkey and turn him loose at night in the barley fields; and the field-guards will take him for a tiger and will not drive him out."
He did exactly that. The donkey grazed on barley as much as he liked, and before daybreak the washerman brought him home. So it went on, and the donkey grew so fat and strong that it became hard even to keep him tied.
Then one day, in rut, he heard from far off the voice of a she-donkey. And the instant he heard it, he began to bray loudly himself.
At that the field-guards knew it was no tiger but a donkey — and they killed him where he stood with arrows, sticks and stones.
सुगुप्तं रक्ष्यमाणोऽपि दर्शयन् दारुणं वपुः । व्याघ्रचर्मप्रतिच्छन्नो वाक्कुले रासभो हतः ॥
Moral: Well hidden and well guarded, and showing a fearsome shape besides, the donkey wrapped in a tiger's skin was killed by his own voice.
From the Panchatantra, Book IV — Loss of Gains.
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