The Jackal Who Followed the Bull

In a certain place there lived a great bull named Tikshnavishana. In his pride he had left his herd and roamed alone along the riverbank, grazing where he pleased.

In that same forest lived a jackal named Pralobhaka with his wife. One day the two were sitting comfortably by the river when the bull came down to drink.

Looking at the hanging flesh beneath the bull, the jackal's wife said to her husband: "My lord! See how those hanging lumps look as though they will drop at any moment. Follow him about and wait for them."

The jackal said: "My dear, who knows whether they will ever fall? Why set me on a pointless errand? I sit here and eat mice, and as long as animals come down to drink we shall get by. And if I abandon this spot to trail after that bull, somebody else will come and take the place."

But she would not have it: "The dull-witted man who is satisfied with a little sees fortune turn elsewhere. A man should always keep his spirit up; where there is enterprise, prosperity does not wander off. Without labour, oil does not come out of sesame."

In the end the jackal gave in and set off after the bull. The two followed him about — days passed, months passed, years passed. And the lumps did not fall.

After fifteen full years the weary jackal said: "My dear — loose or tight, whether they fall or not, I have watched them steadily for fifteen years. They are not going to fall. Come, let us go back to our own place."

Having told this story, the being in the sky said to Somilaka: "To spend a life in hope of wealth you cannot use is exactly this."

शिथिलौ च सुबद्धौ च पततः पततो न वा । निरीक्षितौ मया भद्रे दश वर्षाणि पञ्च च ॥

Moral: Loose or tight, whether they fall or not — my dear, I have watched them for fifteen years.

From the Panchatantra, Book II — The Winning of Friends.