The Lion, the Jackal and the Donkey

In a certain forest lived a lion named Karalakesara, and a jackal named Dhusaraka was his constant attendant.

Once, fighting an elephant, the lion took such blows that he could not move a single leg. The hunting stopped, and Dhusaraka grew weak with hunger.

One day the jackal said: "Master, I am so wasted with hunger that I cannot even attend on you. How am I to do your work?" The lion said: "Go and find some creature I can kill even as I am."

Searching, the jackal came to a tank near a village. There a donkey named Lambakarna was cropping dusty grass, his body worn out with carrying a washerman's loads.

The jackal came up and said: "Uncle! Accept my greetings. It has been a long time — how have you become so thin?" The donkey said: "What can I say, nephew? That wretched washerman beats me, piles unbearable loads on me, and never gives me a handful of grain — only this dust-covered grass. How is a body to thrive on that?"

The jackal said: "If that is so, let me show you a delightful place on a riverbank — grass as green as emerald, beautiful country. Come, and we shall live there in good company."

The donkey said: "Well said, nephew; but we are village animals — how shall we live in a forest? Beasts of prey will eat me." The jackal said: "Do not say that! The place is guarded by the strength of my own arms; nothing can get in. And listen — there are three she-donkeys there, once as ill-used by washermen as you, now plump and full of youth. They said to me: 'Uncle, if you are truly our uncle, go to some village and bring us a husband worthy of us.'"

At that the donkey was overcome, and said: "Then take me where you say."

The jackal brought him to the lion. At the sight of the donkey the lion, weak as he was, sprang at him. The donkey saw him and bolted, and the lion's blow fell on nothing — as useless as an unlucky man's scheme.

The jackal said angrily: "Master! Is this your strength — you could not bring down a donkey standing in front of you? How would you fight an elephant?" Ashamed, the lion said: "It was my own carelessness; I was not properly set. Bring him again; I am ready now, and I shall kill him even if he stands facing me."

The jackal said: "He has gone; how will he come back?" The lion said: "Manage it as you think best, but bring him within reach; my stance is ready."

The jackal went and found the donkey grazing in the same place. Seeing him, the donkey said: "Nephew! A fine place you took me to — I escaped with my life! Tell me, what creature was that, whose blow was hard as a thunderbolt?"

The jackal laughed: "Uncle! That was a she-donkey who rose up in love at the sight of you and came to embrace you; and you, faint-hearted, ran off. She reached out to stop you, nothing more. She is sitting there now resolved to die without you."

The flattery took him again — such is the way of desire — and he went along. This time the lion was ready, and struck him down.

Then the lion went to the river to bathe and make his offerings, leaving the jackal to guard the meat. Out of greed the jackal ate the donkey's ears and heart.

Returning, the lion saw the donkey without ears or heart and said furiously: "Wretch! What foul thing is this — you have fouled my meal by eating the ears and the heart!"

The jackal said humbly: "Master, do not say so. This donkey had no ears and no heart from the beginning — how else would he have come back after once seeing your might and escaping? If he had ears and a heart, would he have returned?"

The lion accepted it, and ate without further concern.

आगतं गतमेवेह दृष्ट्वा सिंहपराक्रमम् । अकर्णहृदयो मूर्खो यो गत्वा पुनरागतः ॥

Moral: Having once seen the lion's strength and got away, the fool who came back again plainly had neither ears nor heart.

From the Panchatantra, Book IV — Loss of Gains.